On April 6, 2015, the global poker community suffered a tremendous loss when UK poker pro David “Devilfish” Ulliott lost his brief battle with stage 4 cancer. Simon Trumper, the live poker director for Nottingham’s renowned Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) poker room and professional poker player in his own right, is on a mission to promote Ulliott’s induction to the Poker Hall of Fame.
Trumper is in Las Vegas at the moment, along with the majority of the world’s top poker pros, competing in the exalted 7-week long World Series of Poker. The DTD director set a number of goals for himself this summer, and so far he’s accomplished half of them.
Simon resolved to achieve four primary goals at the 2015 WSOP. The first three relate to his performance in the world’s most prestigious poker festival. The fourth reflects his undying love for long-time friend and respected peer, David Ulliott.
Of the first three ambitions, Simon Trumper has seen great success. He wanted to finish at a final table at the 2015 WSOP, record the largest cash of his 19-year poker career, and – of course – win his first WSOP bracelet.
While the bracelet has eluded him this year, Trumper was able to land himself in the final table of the 2015 WSOP Event #54, $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship. Not only did he make the final table as hoped, he finished in 4th place for an impressive prize of $267,778, well above his previous top cash of $93,060 earned for finishing 5th in the same 2005 WSOP $10k PLO event a decade ago.
With all but the 2015 WSOP Main Event wrapped up already, and Trumper having been long since eliminated from contention in that contest, his hopes of capturing his first WSOP bracelet this year are long gone. But his fourth mission to see David Ulliott inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is not.
David Ulliott for Poker Hall of Fame
Simon has been making the rounds at the World Series of Poker, distributing t-shirts with a picture of David Ulliott on them, along with the text:
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David “Devilfish” Ulliott 1 April 1954 – 6 April 2015 “A legendary poker player, unique and irreplaceable” |
For many years, David Ulliott was ranked the highest winning poker pro in the UK, having pocketed $6,218,293 over a long and successful career. When the WSOP started running exorbitant buy-in events like the Big One for One Drop, Sam Trickett took over the title by finishing runner up in the 2012 rendition for just over $10 million.
Ulliott played an enormous role in the popularization of the game well before Chris Moneymaker incited the 2003-06 boom of poker by winning the 2003 WSOP Main Event based on a satellite appearance derived from playing online poker. Ulliott first provoked a craze when he won the very first season of the televised Late Night Poker series, broadcast from 1999 to 2002.
“I think he’s a Hall of Famer,” Trumper said of his dearly departed friend. “Not just because he ticks the obvious boxes, which is someone who’s played amongst his peers at the highest levels and has had results, he’s won a World Poker Tour and he’s won a World Series of Poker [bracelet] and he’s had I think five runner-ups. It also says anybody who’s contributed to the growth of poker and I don’t think anybody who has ever met him or heard of him could argue that he doesn’t deserve to be in there on that one.”
Simon has already gained the support of several influential poker pros, including record-holding 14x WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 10x WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson, and the incomparable Antanas “Tony G.” Guoga.
But getting David “Devilfish” Ulliott nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame is the easy part. If and when name appears on the list of eligible inductees, it will then be the responsibility of the other Poker Hall of Fame members and the media to decide whether he’s worthy of the legendary Hall of Famer title.