Jason Koon Becomes 2026 Poker Hall of Fame Inductee: But Why Only Him?

How Did Jason Koon Become the Newest Member of PHoF?

Although up to six players could have been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2026, only one of the eight finalists was chosen at the end of the voting.

Jason Koon received 22 votes out of 33 current Hall of Fame members. Each could have given up to four votes for different finalists, but ultimately, two-thirds of the votes went to Jason, making him The One.

Interestingly, of the 132 available votes, only 100 were “spent” by the members of the Hall, with some voting only for Jason Koon, as Phil Ivey did, for example.

As a result, his lead over the runner-up Scott Seiver was a full 4 points, while the rest of the players in the top 4 literally had a 2-point gap between each position.

Is Jason Koon the Ideal Hall of Famer?

Jason Koon was very surprised to learn of his victory in the vote, especially given how strong the shortlist was in 2026. After receiving the trophy as the newest Hall of Famer, Jason shared his thoughts on Twitter:

Jason Koon

Yesterday I joined the Poker Hall of Fame. A few of the guys on this year’s list are heroes of mine and deserve to be in as much as I do; I’m sure their day is coming soon. When I found poker, I was immediately and forever in it. It was my path to independence, my teacher in handling defeat and most importantly the vessel for introducing me to a large portion of the greatest relationships in my life. Poker is my life’s passion. I’ve truly given it everything I have. I love you guys, thank you.

His victory came as little surprise to almost anyone in the community for a number of good reasons.

Firstly, Jason has an excellent reputation. He’s never been involved in any scandals. His poker results are free of foul play. No backer has ever made any claims against him. And even his only personal conflict with another player was when Koon respectfully called out Dan Smith for inappropriate behavior at Triton in 2023.

Secondly, Jason’s poker accomplishments as of August 2026 would be nothing short of staggering — he has $77M in live earnings and:

• The absolute record for the most Triton titles, having won 12 tournaments of this series while the players closest to him have only 7 victories each.
• Three PGT titles from 2021 and 2022.
• Three WPT titles from 2016, 2017 and 2018.
• Two WSOP bracelets from 2021 and 2025.
• Two EPT titles from 2015 and 2026.
• Two PCA titles from 2017 and 2018.
• Both online and live Poker Masters titles from 2020 and 2022.

Plus countless final tables in the biggest tournaments around the world.

Thirdly, Jason has been playing poker regularly for almost 20 years, devoting a lot of time to live high stakes and super high stakes games. He never misses the biggest games and always brings impeccable conduct and respect to his opponents to the TV tables.

In terms of Poker Hall of Fame induction criteria, Koon was truly the perfect candidate — he’s the right age, respected by peers, has high stakes experience, demonstrates consistent excellence, shapes the game by regular presence and setting the bar for other players, and wins year after year, showing how well he stands the test of time.

Yes — But Why Only Him?

This is a question that even Poker Hall of Fame members themselves are asking in the poker community. It’s not because there’s anything wrong with Koon — rather, it’s because the other finalists in the voting were exactly the same, yet they still didn’t make it into the Hall.

For example, Phil Hellmuth publicly advocated that the system for selecting new members should be changed — because, along with Koon, at least three more players were supposed to become members in 2026:

Phil Hellmuth

I called Shaun Deeb today and told him he deserves to be in. He pointed out that 42 (32?) votes were not cast (that’s a problem). I told Deeb that Isaac Haxton deserves to be put in even more than he does by 1% (real talk!). Shaun didn’t argue saying he is happy with the path he chose — wife and kids over cash game and tourney volume (I’m proud of Shaun and I have a lot of love for him). Ike has been mean to me privately and publicly, for 24 years! But, my vote is cast for the most deserving player, period! Obviously, Scott Seiver should be in the HOF as well. Scott and Ike played the biggest games in the world for like 20 years and both crushed tourneys… I voted for Jason Koon, Seiver, Deeb and Ike. In my opinion, they should have made it in this year.

Scott Seiver, who was quite sad not getting into the Hall with a decent number of votes, not only ended up supporting Jason’s induction but also shared a surprising story about the Doyle Brunson-era voting:

Scott Seiver

Doyle once told me at the table, something I always held close to my heart because of how much him and I played together, maybe the most of literally anyone on the planet other than David Oppenheim in the last 20 years, he told me there are 8-10 voters that don’t follow the current poker world anymore and ask him who to vote for the hall every year, and I should be praying for his good health such that when I’m 40 I can be the one who gets in. When a full 30% of the electorate has moved on from poker it makes the system they chose without clear personalized explanations and that every ballot had to be filled online and with lots of ambiguity in the instructions, made it nearly impossible for anyone mathematically to even be able to clear the 2/3 vote even if receiving near unanimous support from people that are up to date and knowledgeable. I think going forwards I would love to see all nominees get to write a couple paragraph blurb detailing their accomplishments and how it fits into the wider realm of the poker world in an attempt to get to make their own case to the panel of voters, and I think this will humanize the process far more than seeing 8 names and a yes or no checkbox with no further information.

Daniel Negreanu suggested to change system for the Poker Hall of Fame:

“PHOF members must choose 3 nominees and rank them:

• 1st 5 pts
• 2nd 3 pts 
• 3rd 2 pts

Top two point getters are in, and an additional third if they get over 50 points. 

I think the PHOF voters got it right with Jason Koon, but a couple others should have gotten in too. 

The goal of the new system was to clear the backlog to some degree, but the system failed.”

Norman Chad added a suggestion to exclude current members of the Hall from participation in the selection of new ones:

Norman Chad

Let me be abundantly clear, again: The Poker Hall of Famers should not determine who is in the Poker Hall of Fame. And even if they have a vote, they should not be the sole gatekeepers -— poker media and industry professionals should also be part of the mix.

Once again, the poker community ended up dissatisfied with the way the Hall voting process works. The main reason for that is a misunderstanding of why the WSOP allowed up to six players to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a time, giving each voter four votes — but then inducted just one player. And this is the first year of a period in which a huge number of players would be eligible for this honor.

If the trend continues, then at this rate, the majority of currently eligible players will wait for their turn to be inducted in the Hall not even until their poker pension but to a real life retirement.