The nominees for the 2012 European Poker Awards have been announced, with two British professionals and a World Champion – Jake Cody, Sam Trickett and Pius Heinz – earning nominations in two of the most prestigious categories.
The 2012 EPAs, which will be held at the Aviation Club de Paris on January 25, recognize excellence for the previous calendar year on the European continent, and there were plenty of viable candidates for each of the ten categories (an eleventh, the Lifetime Achievement Award, does not accept nominees but is chosen by a special panel). Cody, Trickett and Heinz will be vying for what is arguably the two biggest awards handed out, Player of the Year and Best Tournament Performance.
Cody, who already has two EPA trophies under his belt from last year’s awards show, was nominated for Player of the Year for his completion of the mythical poker “Triple Crown” (career championships on the World Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker) after his WSOP bracelet victory in Las Vegas last summer. Jake became the quickest to complete the “Triple Crown” following that victory.
Trickett, for his part, only earned more than $4.5 million during the 2011 tournament season. Sam took down the championship of the $100K High Roller at the Aussie Millions, a second in the $250K Super High Roller at the same event and a championship victory during the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event in November to garner a majority of his cash in 2011.
Heinz earned his nomination for Player of the Year by just winning the biggest poker tournament on the planet, the WSOP Championship Event, in November. Joining the trio on the nominees list for the Player of the Year are Cody’s fellow “Triple Crown” winner Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov and Andrey Pateychuk.
The triumvirate also earned nominations in the category of Best Tournament Performance for their achievements during the 2011 tournament poker season. Other nominees for this award include France’s Fabrice Soulier and Germany’s Benny Spindler, the winner of the EPT London.
While Heinz may have some difficulties in taking one of those two top awards, he is also nominated for Rookie of the Year, which is more than likely the award he will receive. Nominated alongside the World Champion are France’s Adrien Allain, England’s Sam Holden, the Ukraine’s Oleksii Kovalchuk and Pateychuk.
There will be some difficult choices for another award, Europe’s Leading Lady. While there are stalwarts in the field such as Liv Boeree and Victoria Coren (previous EPA winners), there are challengers who may rise up to take them down. Nominated alongside Boeree and Coren in the category are Nesrine Kourdourli, Barbara Martinez, WPT Russia Regional champion Natalya Nikitina and WPT Malta runner up Cecilia Pescaglini.
For Internet Player of the Year, there are some familiar faces that have been nominated. 2011 WSOP Europe runner up Chris “Moorman1” Moorman, 2012 PCA Super High Roller champion Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and PLO wizard Ilari “Zigmund” Sahamies are joined by Jude Ainsworth and newcomer Rui Cao of France.
Other awards that will be handed out include Poker Staff Person of the Year, Best European Event of the Year and the Rob Gardner Memorial Award for poker personality of the year, along with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The decision of who will win these prestigious honors rests in the hands of an eight person jury, headed by veteran poker player and 2010 EPA Lifetime Achievement Award winner Nic Szeremeta. This eight person panel will vote on each category using a “blind ballot,” meaning the other members of the jury do not know how their fellow members voted. Whoever receives the most votes has their name placed in an envelope but is not announced to anyone until the awards ceremony on January 25. If there is a tie during the voting, the jury is informed who the tie is between, opens discussion on the tied candidates and the voting continues until a winner has been chosen.
The European Poker Awards history dates back to the beginning of this century, with several notable names having taken home the prestigious award. European poker professionals such as Marcel Luske (a three time winner, including a Lifetime Achievement Award), Barny Boatman, Gus Hansen, David “The Devilfish” Ulliott, Rob Hollink, Roland de Wolfe, Annette Obrestad and Sandra Naujoks all have earned the highest achievement in European poker and look to add to their illustrious roster with the 2012 version of the European Poker Awards.
