ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BLACKJACK

SPECIAL SECTION

The Blackjack Hall of Fame (BHOF) honors the greatest blackjack experts, authors, and professional players in history. The idea originated in 2002, when a group of top professional players nominated 21 candidates for consideration.  The final vote (after including input from the public on the Internet) took place at Max Rubin’s Blackjack Ball in January 2003.

The physical premises of the BHOF is at the Barona Casino near San Diego, California.¹⁾The BHOF and the Blackjack Ball are both hosted by the Barona Casino.  If you are invited to the Blackjack Ball you agree NOT to play at Barona.  If you are inducted into the BHOF you will be comped for life at Barona with free room, food and drinks as long as you don’t play in their casino., in San Diego, California. On March 15, 2022, the BHOF became a 501c3 non-profit corporation which allows the Blackjack Ball to have a charitable purpose.

Visit the official Blackjack Hall of Fame

The seven original inductees were:

• Al Francesco (2003)
  
• Peter Griffin (2003)
  
• Tommy Hyland (2003)
  
• Arnold Snyder (2003)
  
• Edward O. Thorp (2003) ²⁾Ed Thorp received the greatest number of votes during voting by the public “and” attendees at the 2003 Blackjack Ball.
  
• Ken Uston (2003)
  
• Stanford Wong (2003)

Since then, the following have been added:

• Max Rubin (2004)
• Keith Taft (2004)
• Julian Braun (2005)
• Lawrence Revere (2005)
• James Grosjean (2006)
• John Chang (2007)
• Roger Baldwin (2008)
• Wilbert Cantey (2008)
• Herbert Maisel (2008)
• James McDermott (2008)
• Richard Munchkin (2009)
• Darryl Purpose (2010)
• Zeljko Ranogajec (2011)
• Ian Andersen (2012)
• Robert Nersesian (2014)
• Don Schlesinger (2015)
• Bill Benter (2016)
• Don Johnson (2017)
• Wally Simmons (2018)
• Rob Reitzen (2019)
• Anthony Curtis (2020)
• Cathy Hulbert (2022)
• Blair Hull (2022)
• Maria “The Greek” (2023)
• Rick “Night Train” Blaine (2024)
• Colin Jones (2025)

Arnold Snyder’s book The Big Book of Blackjack has a good review of the initial inductees.  The Blackjack Hall of Fame was the brainchild of Max Rubin.  See Blackjack Ball.  See Blackjack History Database.
[ maxrubin.com/blackjack_hof.html ]
[ blackjackforumonline.com/content/bjhalloffame.htm ]
[ blackjackreview.com/wp/encyclopedia/books2/#ArnoldSnyder ]
[ Wiki: Blackjack Hall of Fame ]
[ Blackjack Hall of Fame ]

Max Rubin and Don Johnson at the 2018 Blackjack Ball in Las Vegas
Photo credit: Michael Dalton / Blackjack Review