Lupe Soto – Class of 2018
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.
Lupe 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. “I am so excited to be included among these amazing women. 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!” Said Soto when learning of her selection. Soto currently is the CEO of Senior Poker Tour, and the Founder & Founder and President of the newly established Women’s Poker Association (WPA), a non-profit member based organization to advance the development of women in poker.