WiPHoF Announces Class of 2018: Lupe Soto, Maria Ho
The Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHoF) has announced the two honorees to be enshrined as the Hall’s Class of 2018, Lupe Soto and Maria Ho.
Soto, the founder of WiPHoF and several other poker-related organizations, and Ho, a pro poker player, commentator and TV personality, will be honored in a luncheon to be held at 11 a.m. on June 26th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas. The luncheon ceremony is open to the public, and ticket information can be found on the WiPHoF site.
The enshrinement event is sponsoed by PokerStars and Helping Hands, the charitable giving arm of The Stars Group. Other sponsors include 888 Poker and Card Player Cruises. Proceeds from the event go to PokerGives, a charity long associated with WiPHoF that directs funds to military families in need and homeless veterans.
The selection of Soto and Ho came after several weeks’ deliberation and voting from the official WiPHof voting panel, which consists of prior elected members of WiPHoF and roughly 20 veteran members of the poker media.
About Lupe Soto
From WiPHoF’s enshrinement announcement:
It’s fitting that the Hall in its 10th Anniversary year inducts its Founder, Lupe Soto. She has been an advocate for women in poker for close to two decades. Coming from an online poker background in the late 90’s, she became aware of how many women were playing the game from the comfort of their homes. Yet, in land based poker rooms, it was very common to be one of the very few women sitting at a table. In efforts to increase women’s participation in poker, she created the first online poker forum for women back in 2002 and followed it up with a poker tour dedicated to women, Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) in 2004. She has worked tirelessly to create opportunities to introduce women into the game with a myriad of programs. She also conceived the Hall which has honored 17 other women to date for the significant contributions to the poker world.
Soto is also the CEO of Senior Poker Tour, and the Founder and Executive Director of the newly established Women’s Poker Association (WPA), a non-profit member based organization to advance the development of women in poker.
“I am so excited to be included amongst these amazing women,” said Soto. “The ballot this year was filled with some of the most respected and well deserving women in the game. All of them should hold a place in the Hall and I’m sure one day soon, they will!”
About Mario Ho
From WiPHoF’s enshrinement announcement:
Maria Ho is a record-breaking professional poker player, TV personality, Ambassador and host/commentator. This is her first year to be eligible for the Hall, and she was easily selected for induction as she has skyrocketed to success in all areas of the game. She’s currently ranked fourth on the GPI among female poker players in the world, and is 10th on the female all-time money list with over 2.7 million dollars in earnings. She was the first female in history to be hired to a poker television broadcast (HPT) as the resident strategic commentator. She has also been seen on the Emmy Winning 15th season of “The Amazing Race,” as well as on ESPN as part of the broadcast team for the WSOP Main Event in 2017, and currently co-hosts WPT’s King of The Club on Fox Sports Net.
Ho, who was in the Netherlands when notified of her selection, said, “Wow! What wonderful news to receive! I am honestly incredibly shocked and beyond honored to hear this.”
WiPHoF’s ranks will swell to 21 with the inclusion of Soto and Ho in June. The Women in Poker Hall of Fame currently selects two honorees biannually (in even-numbered years) for enshrinement. WiPHoF’s stated goal is “to honor women in poker who have acquired prominence and have made contributions to the poker world.”
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