The names of the players, events and industry professionals up for a plaque at the second American Poker Awards have been released by the Global Poker Index.
Second GPI American Poker Awards Nominees Announced
The names of the players, events and industry professionals up for a plaque at the second American Poker Awards have been released by the Global Poker Index.
The second American Poker Awards takes place on 25th February at the SLS Hotel in Beverley Hills, and the names of those acknowledged as contributing to the American poker industry were released last night by Alex Dreyfus – CEO of the Global Poker Index (GPI).
Thirteen plaques will be given out at the ceremony – one to Bryon Kaverman as 2015 GPI Player of the Year and one to Kelly Minkin as 2015 GPI Female Player of the Year. The destination of the eleven remaining plaques will be decided by a panel of industry professionals the night before the gala celebrations.
And the Nominations Are …
The nominations for the eleven categories still to be included represent practically every element of the live poker scene in the States. Some of the nominations are fairly predictable, some may surprise you, but most of the categories are wide open.
Moment of the Year
- The WSOP Colossus for attracting 22,000 entries
- Daniel Negreanu for busting in eleventh place in the WSOP Main Event
- Phil Hellmuth for winning WSOP Bracelet number 14 in the 10K Razz Championship
- Anthony Zinno for back-to-back WPT victories at the Fallsview Poker Classic and LA Poker Classic last February
Event of the Year (Buy-in up to $2,000)
- The Colossus at the WSOP
- The WPT500 at the ARIA
- The Millionaire Maker at the WSOP
- The WPT DeepStacks Championship
Event of the Year (Buy-in over $2,000)
- The WSOP One Drop
- The WSOP Main Event
- The Super High-Roller Bowl at the Aria
- The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown
Tournament Performance of the Year
- Joe McKeehen in the WSOP Main Event
- Jonathan Duhamel in the WSOP One Drop
- Anthony Zinno in the WPT LA Poker Classic
- Mike Gorodinsky in the WSOP Poker Players Championship
Breakout Performance of the Year
- Cate Hall
- Kelly Minkin
- Asher Conniff
- Joshua Beckley
Charitable Initiative of the Year
- Tiger´s Poker Night
- Charity Series of Poker (CSOP)
- Chad Brown memorial Tournament
- WSOP One Drop/Little One for One Drop
Poker Presenter of the Year
- Kara Scott
- Sarah Herring
- Joe Stapleton
- David Tuchman
Media Person of the Year
- Joey Ingram
- Donnie Peters
- Kevin Mathers
- Jason Somerville
Industry Person of the Year
- Jack Effel
- John Pappas
- Matt Savage
- William Mason
Poker Innovation of the Year
- WSOP for the Colossus
- WSOP for the Online Bracelet Event
- Poker Central for launching a 24/7 television network
- Seminole Hard Rock Casino for live streaming four final tables simultaneously
Media Content of the Year
- Brad Willis for “BUST”
- Faraz Jaka for “Homeless Poker Millionaire”
- Jason Somerville for live streaming the WCOOP
- Joe Giron for photo of Daniel Negreanu after WSOP Main Event elimination
Reaction to the Nominations
Those who were included in the nominations for the American Poker Awards were naturally over the moon. Kara Scott did not rank her chances of collecting a plaque very highly –
Stoked to be nominated! Looking forward to smiling politely & handing the trophy over when Tuck, Stapes or Sarah win https://t.co/rKNq4iNcJo
— Kara Scott (@KaraOTR) January 21, 2016
– but Cate Hall was a little more positive about his prospects:
I’m not saying I’m a lock, but I’m the *only* finalist correctly tagged on Twitter. Save your plane fare, chumps. https://t.co/ntLwH8YHOB
— Cate Hall (@catehall) January 21, 2016
GPL Draft, American Poker Conference and Players´ Panel also on the Agenda
In addition to the American Poker Awards, the SLS Hotel will also be the venue for the drafting of the Global Poker League teams that were announced last week, and there will also be an American Poker Conference hosted on the morning of February 25.
Topics to be discussed during the American Poker Conference will include E-Sports, Women in Poker and the poker media. As part of the conference, there will also be a Players´ Panel discussing many of the current issues for poker in America. The panellists for this event are still to be confirmed.
All of the day´s events will be live-streamed on Twitch.tv/GPL, or – for a quick résumé of the American Poker Awards after the event – follow @PokerNewsReport on Twitter.