Preparing for their ceremonies next month, the British Poker Awards have announced the nominees for their 2012 awards show, featuring several prominent members of the British poker community vying for ten different honors.
The British Poker Awards, sponsored by Genting Poker and the English Poker Open, are in their third year of existence and have traditionally honored the best in the British poker community for their performances both on and off the green baize. Over the span of ten categories – Best Cash Game Player, Best Tournament Player, Best Online Player, Poker Personality of the Year, Best Poker Forum, Best United Kingdom Poker Tournament, Best Poker Blogger, Best Poker League, Best International Player and Player of the Year – the public gets to choose the winners for most of the categories (Best International Player and POY are chosen by a judging panel). The opportunity to vote on these categories has opened up at thebritishpokerawards.com and will choose the eventual winners.
There are several players who have each earned two nominations for a BPA this year. Sam Trickett, who has seemed to be a fixture at any poker event around the world over the past few years, is nominated for Best Cash Player and Best Tournament Player. Chris Moorman and Chris Brammer have earned dual nominations in the Best Tournament Player and Best Online Player categories. Earning two nominations each for their excellent work off the felt, both Vicky Coren and Neil Channing have been nominated in the categories of Poker Personality of the Year and Best Poker Blogger.
The choices that are present for the public voting make it difficult to pick one outright winner. Joining Trickett in the Best Cash Player race is Ben Grundy, Alexander Millar, Fred Ogilvie and Andrew Moseley. Trickett, Brammer and Moorman are going to have to battle against Roberto Romanello and JP Kelly for the Best Tournament Player award, while Moorman and Brammer battle against Rob Akery, Matthew Frankland and Ross Loggie for Best Online Player.
In the Poker Personality category, Coren and Channing will be facing off against Kara Scott, Liv Boeree and Andrew Feldman for the honors, a difficult choice in that all are great ambassadors for the game. For Best Poker Blogger, Coren and Channing have to duel against Tony Kendall, James Atkin and “Lil” Dave Nicholson for the right to take home the BPA trophy.
The three other categories also will be difficult fights for the voting public. For Best Poker Forum, thehendonmob.com will line up against Gutshot.com, punterslounge.com, BlondePoker.com, Sky Poker and BlackBelt Poker for Best Poker Forum. The Best Poker League features the Champions Poker League, the Discover Poker League, the Live Pub Poker League, the Nuts Poker League, Poker Tree and Redtooth Poker battling for the BPA. Finally, the choice for Best Tournament in the U. K. boils down to the European Poker Tour’s London stop, the United Kingdom/Ireland Poker Tour’s Nottingham festivities, the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final, the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour Goliath, the Dusk Til Dawn Grand Prix and the Amateur Poker Association and Tour’s World Championship.
Last year’s awards were dominated by Triple Crown winner Jake Cody, who took home BPA trophies for Best Tournament Player and Player of the Year. Trickett, who was thought to be the favorite for the Tournament Player award, instead had to settle for being named the Best Cash Game player. Jason Mercier was named the Best International Player while Moorman took home the Best Online Player honors.
The nominees list features several people who have already taken home BPA trophies previously. Along with Trickett (2010 winner of Best New Player along with last year’s trophy), Moorman is the only player who has won the Online Player award, while Coren and Channing have each won a BPA each of the past two years.
The British Poker Awards will be handed out on September 17 aboard the yacht H.M.S. President, providing a unique setting to hand out the prestigious awards. Tickets are available to the ceremonies (for £21.85, counting processing fee) and can be ordered where interested parties can also vote for the awards at thebritishpokerawards.com.