With the winners from the 2014 British Poker Awards being announced only two days ago, we could say that we are well into the awards season. Now, it is time for the first ever American Poker Awards. The event is organized by the Global Poker Index to honor the best North American poker players and their performances throughout 2014, as well as the most notable tournaments and poker-related initiatives that helped for the game to be promoted in the best possible way.
The event is to take place on February 27 at the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills and is set to begin at 8:30 pm. It will be hosted by poker player and TV personality Kara Scott.
Organizers said that the awards ceremony will be preceded by the Global Poker Conference. It is expected to feature a series of panel discussions with industry experts, such as poker industry consultant Rob Perelman, Adam Pliska, president of WPT, Edgar Stuchly, president of EPT, and many more. Several professional poker players will also take part in the discussions, with Daniel Negreanu and Mohsin Charania being among them.
The nominees for the 2014 GPI American Poker Awards were announced on January 28. They were determined by a specially appointed nomination panel of 60 industry experts. Each of them were asked to select two nominees in each category. The results were tabulated and were handed to a Jury Panel, which will have to determine the winners.
It is important to note that the GPI has already determined the winners in the following categories – Player of the Year, Female Player of the Year, American National Player of the Year, and Canadian National Player of the Year.
And here are the rest of the nominees.
The four contenders in the Tournament Performance of the Year category are Mohsin Charania for his first place in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Daniel Colman for winning the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event, Darren Elias for triumphing in the WPT Borgata Poker Open, and Mark Newhouse for finishing ninth in the WSOP Main Event.
Players Daniel Colman, Jake Schindler, Mukul Pahuja, and Brandon Shack-Harris are competing in the Breakout Player of the Year category.
The nomination panel has decided to set two Event of the Year categories – one for events with a buy-in fee up to $2,000 and one for those with a buy-in fee over $2,000. The nominees for the first category are the HPT Cal State Championship, the WPT500 at Aria, the WSOP Millionaire Maker, and the WSOP Monster Stack.
The nominees for the latter category are the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event, the WSOP Main Event, the WPT Montreal, and the WPT World Championship.
The nominees for Industry Person of the Year are Ty Stewart, an executive director of WSOP, Matt Savage, executive tour director of WPT and founder of the Poker Tournament Directors Association, Adam Pliska, president of WPT, and Jack Effel, tournament director of WSOP.
The Charitable Initiative of the Year nominees are Raising for Effective Giving (REG), Charity Series of Poker, the partnership between WSOP and the ONE DROP foundation, and the CHOP and WPT Foundation “All In” for Kids Poker Tournament.
Nolan Dalla, Kevin Mathers, Rich Ryan, and Chris Grove are competing in the Media Person of the Year category.
The GPI will also bestow a special Poker’s Best Ambassador award. The nominees in this category were chosen by fans and they are Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Mike Sexton, and Jason Somerville. This award is to be given to the player that is considered to have worked the hardest for the promotion of poker and has managed to connect with both fellow-players and fans.
A Lifetime Achievement Award will be bestowed on an American or Canadian player who has had contributed most to poker over the years. The winner will be determined exclusively by the Jury and will be announced during the ceremony.
