I am going to answer the question a bit differently. I think there are probably five players and maybe a couple more that have made a significant impact on holdem poker since it was taken from the back alleys to mainstreet.
The first is Benny Binion who created the
wsop and bought poker into the
casinos of the modern world. Honorable mention here to Doyle Brunson who was and still is a statesman of the game.
Second is Amarillo Slim who was a great promoter of the game and made it a main offering in casinos around North America.
Fast forward to modern times and the third is Chris Money maker, who by satelliting into and winning the WSOP main event in 2003 opened the floodgates to
online poker and took it into the multi billion dollar industry it is today and made multi millionairs, not out of the players, but mostly out of the owners who invested in
party poker and other online poker rooms most of which no longer exist.
Honorable mention to the celebrities this created and the work they did promoting the game like Helmuth, Negrano, Tony G. If I did not mention your name pleqase do not be insulted. There are many more.
Foueth is Vanessa Selbts , Annie Duke, Vanessa Rosseau, and many more of the women players that opened it up for women to play and think they can be both ruthless as players and hot at the same time.
Finally Alex Krauchenko who made the game popular in Russia and contributes to the online world and increasing revenue of online rooms by bringing in lots of rookie Russian players that contribute to all of our bankrolls as they perfect their own game.
China needs to have an emerging star that will take this thing to the next level By bringing in even more Chinese newbies although they will be tougher because they are good at the math.