Global Poker Awards Finalists Revealed

For the last few years, the poker world has celebrated its best performers and contributors of the year in a pair of awards ceremonies, the Global Poker Index’s American Poker Awards and European Poker Awards. This spring, those events will be combined into one, the appropriately named Global Poker Awards. The awards ceremony will be live streamed on PokerCentral’s PokerGO service on April 5th.

Earlier this month, a special nomination panel decided on the finalists in each of twenty different categories. Those categories – and their respective finalists – were just announced on Monday. A separate jury comprised of “industry representatives” (I’m still awaiting my phone call, GPI), will select the winners.

“Our global initiatives behind the European Poker Awards and the American Poker Awards come together starting this year,” said Eric Danis, president of the Global Poker Index, in a press release. “We’re excited to bring recognition to the poker world’s best players and most prominent industry contributors on an unprecedented scale.”

The categories for the Global Poker Awards are largely the same as those from the American and European Poker Awards. Things like best tournament performance, breakout player, tournament director, and more, are all still there.

Thirteen of the 20 categories feature finalists, as mentioned. The other seven categories are special in that they have already been determined or will have a singularly chosen recipient. For instance, the GPI Player of the Year and GPI Female Player of the Year are determined based on the Global Poker Index rankings for 2018, so when the calendar turned over, we already knew who won.

Other awards, like the Jury Prize and Lifetime Achievement Award don’t have finalists and are just determined by the jury.

I would also like to give a special shoutout to my colleague, Haley Hintze, who is a nominee in the Media Content of the Year category for an article she wrote for VegasSlotsOnline about poker pro Gordon Vayo’s lawsuit against PokerStars. Haley was a finalist for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame last year and she would have won, too, if it weren’t for those pesky kids. I’m sure she would say that being nominated is an honor in and of itself (as well as scolding me for praising her in an article), but let’s keep our fingers crossed that her recognition will be bumped up to the next level this year.

The list of categories and nominees is below. The Global Poker Awards are presented by PokerStars.

2019 Global Poker Awards Finalists

TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE

• Justin Bonomo (Super High Roller Bowl IV)
• John Cynn (WSOP Main Event)
• Maria Lampropulos (PCA Main Event)
• Dylan Linde (WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic)

BREAKOUT PLAYER

• Almedin “Ali” Imsirovic
• Maria Konnikova
• Ping Liu
• Christopher Michael Soyza

STREAMER OF THE YEAR

• Jeff Gross
• Jason Somerville
• Jaime Staples
• Lex Veldhuis

VLOGGER OF THE YEAR

• Marle Cordeiro
• Joe Ingram
• Andrew Neeme
• Daniel Negreanu
• Doug Polk

PODCAST

• LFG Podcast (Chad Holloway, Jamie Kerstetter)
• PokerCentral Podcast (Brent Hanks, Remko Rinkema)
• PokerNews Podcast (Sarah Herring, Jeff Platt)
• The Chip Race Poker Podcast (David Lappin, Dara O’Kearney)
• The Fives a PocketFives.com Podcast (Lance Bradley, Donnie Peters)

BROADCASTER

• Maria Ho
• Lon McEachern
• Nick Schulman
• Lex Veldhuis

POKER JOURNALIST

• Drew Amato
• Sarah Herring
• Remko Rinkema
• Christian Zetzsche

MEDIA CONTENT

• Drew Amato (photo: Brunson bids farewell to WSOP)
• Lance Bradley (book: The Pursuit of Poker Success, published by D&B Publishing)
• Haley Hintze (article: Vayo v. PokerStars)
• PokerCentral/GO (Super High Roller Club: Nick Schulman featuring Ali Nejad)

INDUSTRY PERSON

• Angelica Hael (World Poker Tour)
• Cary Katz (Poker Central)
• Matt Savage (WPT, TDA, more)
• Ty Stewart (World Series of Poker)
• Rob Yong (Dusk Till Dawn, partypoker)

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR

• Tony Burns (Seminole Hard Rock)
• Paul Campbell (ARIA)
• Jack Effel (WSOP)
• Kenny Hallaert (Unibet Open)

MID-MAJOR TOUR/CIRCUIT

• 888poker Live
• RUNGOOD Poker Series
• Unibet Open
• WPTDeepStacks
• WSOP Circuit

EVENT OF THE YEAR

• partypoker Caribbean Poker Party Main Event
• Super High Roller Bowl IV
• WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic
• WSOP Main Event

MOMENT OF THE YEAR

• Jeremy Hilsercop receives PSPC Platinum Pass (with help from Joe Ingram, Arlie Shaban, PokerStars and the poker community) as video of wife gifting him trip to WSOP on Christmas day goes viral
• Joe Cada wins WSOP The Closer; registering for the event moments after remarkable 5th place finish in WSOP Main Event
• Doyle Brunson plays his final WSOP event
• Justin Bonomo wins Big One for One Drop, completing Super High Roller Streak (SHRBChina, SHRBIV, One Drop)

OTHER TROPHIES TO BE PRESENTED AT THE GLOBAL POKER AWARDS

• 2018 GPI Poker Player of the Year (Alex Foxen)
• 2018 GPI Female Player of the Year (Kristen Bicknell)
• Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poker
• Charitable Initiative
• Jury Prize
• PocketFives Legacy Award
• People’s Choice Award for Poker Personality of the Year

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