Im not an historian but I would say for me the top 3 is Binion, Doyle, Sexton

... an inspiration to all the weinermobile drivers out there ?

A very good listing.

I would narrow it down, based on about 50 years of personal observation:

Jack Binion, for spreading No Limit Texas Holdem, in both cash and tournament formats

The WPT and Party Poker and UB for putting live poker onto the Travel Channel.

The various online operators who saw the potential and launched a large number of online within a span of 4 months in 2003, including Isai who brought professionalism to the online industry. "Move fast and break things" was online poker SOP long before Facebook arrived, A "Facebook" was iused at colleges for a publication furnished to the incoming college undergrads dating back to the 1970s)

Honorable Mentions to Mason and David, the Kahnawake Mohawk Nation and
the governments of Canada, Costa Rica and Antigua/Barbuda.

Isai

I thought we were doing who is the most important person that’s Alive

That would be Phil Hellmuth lol

"Where did I get my wisdom from? Simple, Phil Hellmuth and his positivity is where I learned everything" Jesus Christ

I don't think Pokerstrategy had nearly the impact that 2+2 had on growing the game.

That said, if we're looking for the people who made the most money from poker, the PS guys are pretty far up the list.

Seconding Phil Hellmuth!

Johnny Hughes

I dont recall his name but I would vote for the guy who runs ACR because he's created a great online site Americans can play in.

Nice list. I also vote Moneymaker, though the hole card cam inventor you mentioned is the unsung hero/facilitator here. It's an interesting thought experiment to wonder what would've happened to poker had someone like Joe Cada or Peter Eastgate won in 2003--young (and therefore potentially inspirational) but not so memorable. Moneymaker isn't even a particularly compelling personality, but the name and backstory were impossible to beat.

'Chris Moneymaker' achieved way more popularity than 'Chris Smith' ever would have

Book sales are way less relevant of a metric than actual participation in poker (though of course a correlation should exist). Many of my friends who got into poker in or around 2003 never bought a single poker book. I take it that in your estimation, the 'The Moneymaker Effect' is a mere misnomer? Interview 100 poker players roughly my age (37, nearing the end of high school in 2003), and the top two answers you're going to get to this poll are Moneymaker and Matt Damon/Ed Norton

ETA 631 839 2576 5619. Those are the number of entrants in the Main Event from 2002-2005. So although there was a larger increase from 2004 to 2005 than there was from 2003 to 2004, I'd still chalk up the 2004-2005 increase to 'residual Moneymaker Effect' as opposed to 'Fossilman Effect'

It'll be very difficult to improve upon this post

ETA 631 839 2576 5619. Those are the number of entrants in the Main Event from 2002-2005. So although there was a larger increase from 2004 to 2005 than there was from 2003 to 2004, I'd still chalk up the 2004-2005 increase to 'residual Moneymaker Effect' as opposed to 'Fossilman Effect'[/QUOTE]

And also the percentage gain in players from '03-'04 was over 200% while from '04-'05, after Raymer won, was just under 100%

First, I suspect that our book sales were much more than you realize . Second, the correlation was probably very strong. Our book sales increased by a factor of 10 when comparing 2002 to 2005(and this was greatly helped by the release of the first two Harrington books starting in Dec. 2004), and this increase was well on its way before Moneymaker won in 2003. Third, while the Fossilman effect may be largely forgotten today, its impact was dramatic in 2004.

Now with all this being said, I don't mean to take anything away from Moneymaker. From my perspective, he probably played an important role in maintaining the initial poker boom. But in my opinion, I don't think his impact was as significant as many people today think it was.

I actually think the premise of this thread is a little off even though it's still an interesting question. What I think happened is that a number of things came together which caused the poker boom, and the value of the hold was actually much larger than the sum of the individual parts.

And one final thing, the poker boom, which began when the original World Poker Tour shows were shown on the Travel Channel in 2003, turned my life upside down and impacted me greatly.

Mason

Mike Sexton, if I remember right and he narrated the televised WPT tournaments. Ask almost anyone what was the first non-fictional piece of poker related media they were exposed to, and it's going to be the WPT broadcasts at a high likelihood.

And also the percentage gain in players from '03-'04 was over 200% while from '04-'05, after Raymer won, was just under 100%[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I originally intended to mention that as well, but I figured the point was already made

It'd be interesting to see 2+2's historical sales data. I imagine 2005 was the peak year in the history of your company? Videos/online content and D+B were minimal or nonexistent back then. Cardoza would've been the main competition, to my knowledge.

The thing with the WPT was that it was on the Travel Channel. Senior year of high school in 2003, my AP calculus teacher was himself a poker player whom I'd later play against, and I remember him asking the class if any of us watched the WPT. Two of my classmates did. By that time the next year, I also did, but the WSOP being on ESPN really helped its visibility. Gus Hansen and Esfandiari did make their name on WPT telecasts IIRC, but I'd imagine we could find some viewership data for 2003 WPT episodes versus the 2003 World Series, and I doubt it would compare favorably for the WPT. I buy the argument that the boom started slightly before Moneymaker, but I think he/that tournament was an accelerant that dwarfs the other factors of the time period. If there's data that demonstrates otherwise, I'd be happy to change my mind.

Would the most important person in poker be the one who contributed the most to the game?

If so, I'd vote for Jamie Gold. He's contributed almost his entire $12M WSOP winnings (and net worth) back to the poker community. Honorable mention goes to Guy Laliberté and Andy Beal, and the millions of poker players who make it profitable to play the game. Without them, poker as we know it wouldn't exist.

The hole card cam is the biggest contributor. It made poker viable for TV which is what made the poker boom sustainable. Moneymaker, Binion, 2+2 or whomever else can't hold a candle to people being able to the follow the action and thinking, "I can do that!"

Some names that are missing:

Bobby Baldwin: Not only was he a road gambler in the era of Texas Dolly, Amarillo Slim, and Sailor Roberts, not only was he an early winner of the WSOP main event, but he was Steve Wynn's right hand man when Wynn was reshaping the idea of the Las Vegas casino resort. As such, he kept poker in the foreground, with (in succession) the poker rooms at the Golden Nugget, the Mirage, Bellagio, and the Wynn.

Doug Dalton: the poker room manager, under Baldwin, at the Golden Nugget, the Mirage, and Bellagio. Under him, the rules and procedures of cardroom poker were regularized.

Speaking of regularizing rules, Bob Ciaffone should be given a nod for Robert's Rules of Poker which are the gold standard for rules of play and conduct.

Another influential figure: Matt Savage, who managed the transition of tournament poker into the television era. He founded the Tournament Directors Association.

He's not the GOAT, he does not have the most bracelets, but Daniel Negreanu is probably the poker player who is best known to the public at large, better known even than Hellmuth.

The hole-card cam was an incremental improvement, not itself revolutionary. The wild success of Late Night Poker and Ladbroke's Poker Million tournament proved that televised poker had a hungry audience.

Moneymaker