Nominations for the 2022 class for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHoF) are now underway. The global pandemic put the proceedings on pause in 2020, but it will make an epic comeback later this year.
The most recent WiPHoF inductees, as part of the class of 2018, were Maria Ho and the organization’s founder Lupe Soto, and two new members will be selected this year after the full list of nominees gets whittled down to the shortlist. The induction ceremony will be taking place on December 17 at Resorts World Las Vegas.
Much like the Poker Hall of Fame, the WiPHoF has a vast talent pool to choose from, and the list continues to grow. Below are my top seven choices for those most deserving to be inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
Vanessa Selbst
We will get the most obvious choice out of the way first. Vanessa Selbst is #1 on the Women’s All-Time Money List at Hendon Mob by almost a 2-to-1 margin. That’s a feat she already achieved by the end of 2016 before essentially stepping away from the game!
She is also the only woman in World Series of Poker history with three open field bracelets and also boasts two NAPT titles, a Partouche Poker Tour title, and a PCA High Roller title on her resume.
Remember the Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout in 2015? She won that for $1 million. A little-known fact is that Selbst’s first live tournament victory was a WPT Ladies Event title at the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic. She finished runner-up at the Ladies Event of the WPT World Championships that year.
Selbst has career live tournament winnings of $11.9 million. While Selbst has largely retired from professional poker, her resume is more than worthy of induction.
Shirley Rosario
Out of everyone on this list, Shirley Rosario is easily the most well-rounded poker player. She has over $670,000 in live tournament earnings, but what is most impressive is her skill in a multitude of poker variants. According to Hendon Mob, she has 17 tournament victories in a wide variety of poker variants. However, keep in mind that her career dates back before accurate records were kept for tournaments, so her total earnings number is likely much higher.
Rosario is also a successful cash game player and has advocated for women in poker for decades. Some of you longtime poker fans may remember Poker-Babes.com, one of the first websites that celebrated women in poker. She founded and operated that site until it was sold to PokerStars in 2010.
With tournament cashes dating back 20 years now, Rosario continues to school players half her age at the tables. In 2022, she has three final tables and a victory at Winning O’ the Green in CA. She also ran deep in two WSOP events, including the $10k HORSE. It’s not a matter of if Shirley Rosario gets into the WiPHoF, but rather when.
Kristen Bicknell Foxen
Kristen Bicknell is easily the most successful active female player in the world today in terms of earnings. In the live arena, she has tournament earnings of $5.59 million. This includes three WSOP bracelet victories. She won the 2013 Ladies Championship and two open field bracelets in 2015 and 2020.
Bicknell has excelled in the High Roller arena. Her largest win was at the 2019 Poker Masters, where she took a $25k NL Event for $408,000. She also has two World Poker Tour final tables, including a 5th place finish at this year’s WPT Choctaw Main Event.
Bicknell has also excelled in the online arena. According to PocketFives, Bicknell has lifetime earnings of over $6.11 million. This gives her combined live and online tournament earnings of $11.71 million. She is just 35, and this is her first year of eligibility. However, she already has a career deserving of enshrinement.
Nani Dollison
If you came into poker after 2005, chances are that you’ve never met or even heard of Nani Dollison. However, she was one of the more successful female players of the pre-Boom era.
Dollison is a three-time WSOP bracelet winner and won back-to-back WSOP Ladies Championships in 2000 and 2001. The only other woman to do so is Women in Poker Hall of Famer Susie Isaacs. Dollison’s other bracelet was for winning the $2k Limit Hold’em event in 2001.
If you look at her Hendon Mob profile, the majority of her live tournament cashes were final table appearances. She finished her career with $776,992 in earnings. I’m an advocate of honoring the game’s history, and it seems logical that an old-school top performer like Nani Dollison ought to get inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
Maria Constanza Lampropulos
Maria Lampropulos reminds me a lot of the late John Bonetti in that she didn’t take up poker until a little later in life. She was in her early 30s when she started playing the game, but it didn’t take long for her to become a star. Her breakthrough moment came in 2017 when she won the partypoker Millions Dusk to Dawn Main Event in Nottingham, England for over $1.25 million.
In 2018, Lampropulos won the PCA Main Event for just over $1.08 million. She continues to be a top performer at tournaments globally and has over $3.46 million in live tournament earnings. She ranks third on Argentina’s All-Time Money List and 11th on the Women’s All-Time Money List.
Lampropulos deserves consideration based on her resume, and it would be nice to see the WiPHoF add an international presence to its ranks.
Kara Scott
Kara Scott is one of the most recognized faces in poker media today. She originally gained fame for her work with Poker Night Live before moving to Sky Poker. Scott was later the TV host for the European Poker Tour. Many people recognize her from her time on High Stakes Poker in 2010, but most modern poker fans know her from her work on the World Series of Poker Main Event broadcasts.
If you only know Scott from her broadcasting career, you only know half the story. She has live tournament earnings of $664,795. She proved she had game at the 2008 World Series of Poker when she went deep in the Main Event. In 2009, she finished runner-up in the Irish Poker Open Main Event, netting $413,612. Scott has multiple final table appearances and won the Ladies Event at the 2019 888poker LIVE Barcelona series.
Kara Scott has enjoyed success both at the tables and in the media. She has been one of poker’s best ambassadors, regardless of gender. The Women in Poker Hall of Fame will undoubtedly one day welcome her with open arms.
Karina Jett
Amazingly, Karina Jett is not in the Women in Poker Hall of Fame already, but that is also a testament to the strength of the candidate pool. Jett is known by most everyone in the poker world, either as a player or as an industry influencer.
At the tables, Jett has enjoyed a successful career in both tournaments and cash games. She has made the final table of the WSOP Ladies Championship three times, finishing runner-up in 2011. Her largest tournament score came after winning the He Said, She Said episode of Poker After Dark in 2010.
Away from the tables, Jett has worked behind the scenes to grow the game of poker, including the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. She has also worked with various charity events around Las Vegas.
Karina Jett deserves induction based on her playing career, but after considering her complete body of work, she is a sure-fire lock to get into the WiPHoF at some point.
