Tuesday, April 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
If former world poker champion Berry Johnston keeps up the pace of the records he has set in more than a decade of World Series of Poker appearances, he has a good shot of one day making it to the Hall of Fame.
But not this year.
The Hall of Fame Classic, almost canceled in 1992 over a proposed high withholding tax on winnings and canceled a year later because of scheduling problems, has been called off again this year.
Tournament Director Jim Albrecht, in response to a question of Berry's chances of one day making the Hall of Fame, confirmed Monday night that the eighth Hall of Fame Classic was off.
And, he said, there will be no inductee into the 17-year-old shrine at the Horseshoe casino, just as there was none in 1992.
He said the expansion of the National Finals Rodeo caused the cancellation, as that event takes up a lot of hotel rooms that are essential to operating a successful international poker tournament.
Since its inception in 1988, the Hall of Fame Classic has been held at Binion's Horseshoe during various dates of the last quarter, but enjoyed its greatest success the years it was held in December -- the same month the rodeo comes to town.
So players such as Johnston will have to make the best of the World Series of Poker, which will be the sole poker event at the Horseshoe this year.
And Johnston is doing just that.
Over the weekend, he placed third in the $1,500 buy-in 7-card razz event, where a record field of 145 players battled for a record $217,500 in prize money. Johnston took home $21,750 of it.
Johnston, in addition to winning the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold 'em game in 1986, has won three other preliminary world title events. The no-limit hold 'em finale to determine this year's world champion is set for May 13-16.
Johnston's other major World Series accomplishments:
* Third place on the all-time money list with $1,631,162 in winnings, behind two-time world champion Johnny Chan ($2,097,539) and former world champ Phil Hellmuth ($1,768,450).
* The most final table finishes with 22 -- two ahead of the late Johnny Moss who entered nearly every World Series event between 1970 and 1994.
* The most in-the-money finishes with 28 cash-ins, three ahead of Moss.
Last December, Hall of Fame officials passed on Johnston and other living players to induct Alabama gambler "Little Man" Popwell, who also was a numbers runner and illegal backwoods casino operator in the 1940s and '50s.
The Horseshoe defended the decision to induct a man with such a questionable past, saying that to disqualify excellent poker players of yesteryear for legal problems would mean eliminating almost every great player of antiquity from enshrinement consideration.
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