Eric Drache and Brian Sailor Roberts to be Inducted into Poker Hall of Fame

Eric Drache and Brian Sailor Roberts are set to be the newest inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame.

Drache has made it to five final tables in the World Series of Poker. Most recently he placed second place in the $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud event in 2009 scooping up $231,013. He contributed to the poker industry not only with his skilled play but as the WSOP tournament director from 1973 to 1988 and developed what we know as satellite tournaments. Drache also managed a number of high profile Las Vegas poker rooms including the Golden Nugget, Bellagio and Mirage.

“I’m not only surprised and honored to have been selected, I’m also a bit embarrassed considering the other nominees”, said Drache. “When Jack Binion and myself worked on creating the Hall of Fame, I never considered myself a potential candidate. I’m particularly happy for the family of ‘Sailor’ Roberts. ‘Sailor,’ by everyone’s account, including my own personal observations, was a great player and played many games very well.”

Roberts won two WSOP bracelets but passed away in 1995. He played poker all over the country with fellow Hall of Famers Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston and Doyle Brunson.

“At a time in which professional poker players were viewed as outlaws and poker was illegal, he formed a partnership with Doyle and Slim and they traveled across the country from poker game to poker game” said Crandell Addington, a 2005 inductee. “They deployed advanced strategies unknown at the time that featured playing their opponents hands on many occasions rather than their own hands.”

The induction ceremony is set for October 30, 2012 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

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