The important poker people were in Beverly Hills last Thursday receiving their shimmering trophies at the 3rd Annual GPI American Poker Awards. It was kind of like Sunday night’s Oscars except nobody posted about it on Facebook and David Peters was correctly announced as GPI Player of the Year on the first try.
Many of the usual awards were handed out (if a two-year precedent can establish the “usual”) like GPI Player of the Year, Female Player of the Year, Moment of the Year, and Tournament Performance of the Year. Times change, though, and so do the awards. One sign of the times was the addition of Twitch Poker Streamer of the Year and Poker Podcast of the Year.
Some awards were eliminated: Poker Presenter of the Year and Poker Innovation or Initiative of the Year are gone. Event of the Year was also consolidated into one award, rather than having two separate ones for tournaments with different price points.
It should also be noted that the two Player of the Year awards were based on the Global Poker Index’s scoring rankings in 2016. It was a completely objective award; everyone already knew who won it, as opposed to several awards whose winners were up to the voting committee.
The winners of the categories with multiple nominees are indicated in italics.
GPI Player of the Year
David Peters
GPI Female Player of the Year
Cate Hall
Lifetime Achievement Award
Mori Eskandani
Charitable Initiative of the Year
Dan Smith Charity Drive
PocketFives Legacy Award
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy
The Hendon Mob Award
John Holley
Jury Prize
Matt Savage
Tournament Performance of the Year
Kristen Bicknell wins 2nd WSOP bracelet ($1,500 Bounty)
Ari Engel wins Aussie Millions
Maurice Hawkins wins WSOPC Cherokee, back-to-back WSOPC
Mike Sexton wins WPT Montreal
Moment of the Year
Griffin Benger’s AA vs William Kassouf’s KK showdown at the WSOP Main Event
Jason Mercier goes on heater: captures (2) WSOP bracelets and a 2nd in a week to secure WSOP PoY
David Peters needing 3rd at EPT Prague to win GPI PoY does exactly that and takes the title from Fedor Holz
Mike Sexton mounts unbelievable comeback to win his first WPT title at WPT Montreal
Breakout Performance of the Year
Ari Engel
Maurice Hawkins
Ankush Mandavia
Sam Soverel
Event of the Year
Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Super High Roller Bowl
WSOP Main Event
WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic
Mid-Major Circuit of the Year
Heartland Poker Tour (HPT)
Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT)
World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC)
WPTDeepStacks (WPTDS)
Industry Person of the Year
Tony Burns (Seminole Hard Rock Tournament Director)
Jack Effel (WSOP VP Intl’ Poker Operations, WSOP Director)
Sean McCormack (ARIA Director of Poker Operations)
Matt Savage (WPT Executive Tour Director, TDA Founder)
Media Person of the Year
Lance Bradley
Sarah Herring
Joseph Stapleton
David Tuchman
Media Content of the Year
Bob, Charlie and a Life-Changing WSOP Main Event Journey (Lance Bradley, PocketFives)
Life’s a Gamble (Mike Sexton, D&B Poker)
Stu Ungar’s Last Chance Gone Wrong Documentary (Matthew Showell, PokerListings)
Jason Somerville provides live Aussie Millions coverage on his Twitch channel
Twitch Poker Streamer of the Year
Kevin Martin “kevinmartin987”
Jason Somerville “jcarverpoker“
Jaime Staples “pokerstaples”
Parker Talbot “tonkaaaaP”
Poker Podcast of the Year
Poker Life Podcast with Joe Ingram
Full Contact Poker with Daniel Negreanu
PokerNews Podcast
TwoPlusTwo Pokercast
