After an extensive vetting and nomination process, the Global Poker Index has announced the nominations for the 2020 Global Poker Awards. Now in its second year (and following the success of the American and European Poker Awards), the Global Poker Awards looks to honor achievements in the game by the organizations, players and industry personnel for a calendar year. With their 2020 selections, the GPI has certainly put a qualified field of candidates forward for consideration.
Ingram Leads the Nomination List
Leading the way for the nominees is podcaster/investigator Joey Ingram, once known for his prowess in online poker. Instead of playing the game, Ingram has been feted for his extensive research into the Mike Postle Investigation, where he broke down video from those infamous Stones Gambling Hall streaming sessions (among other things). Ingram earned four nominations in the Global Poker Awards for that work, including taps for Best Media Content (Video), Podcast of the Year (“Poker Life Podcast”), Journalist of the Year and the People’s Choice Award for Poker Personality of the Year.
The only person coming close to Ingram’s number is a multiple Global Poker Award (or its previous incarnations) winner. Lance Bradley has earned three nominations in 2020 and some of those will run up against Ingram. Bradley earned nominations in Best Media Content (Written), Journalist of the Year and Podcast of the Year; the last two will see Bradley and Ingram square off against each other.
There are several double nominees who made the grade in 2020. Perennial favorite Daniel Negreanu was nominated for two awards (Vlogger of the Year and Podcast of the Year), tournament director extraordinaire Matt Savage (Industry Person of the Year, Tournament Director of the Year), Jamie Kerstetter (Broadcaster of the Year and Twitter Personality of the Year), 2019 Streamer of the Year Lex Veldhuis (Streamer of the Year, People’s Choice for Poker Personality of the Year) and a newcomer to the game Hayley Hochstetler (Photo of the Year and Best Media Content (Written)).
Others who will be up for awards include Barney Boatman, Joe Stapleton, Kevin “kevmath” Mathers, Ali Imsirovic and Bryn Kenney.
Revamped Nomination Process = Better Award Winners
The 2020 Global Poker Awards underwent a massive revamp of its nomination and election process. For the 2019 version of the awards, many in the poker community were critical of the GPI for nominating people who weren’t qualified for certain awards due to the lack of qualified material for the year. The GPI listened to the community and completely reworked their procedures before even starting the process.
In the past, the Global Poker Awards winners were chosen by a committee after polling industry members, players and others to make a nomination list. That committee is gone now, and the nomination list is limited to people who have experience in that particular realm. For example, if someone was unknowing about the Podcast of the Year situation, then they wouldn’t be polled for a vote on that subject.
A list was sent out for nominations to those who were qualified and, after those ballots were returned, then another list with the respective nominees for each category was sent out to actually vote for the individual winners. That process ended on Thursday (writer’s note: this writer took part in both segments of the voting), with the nominees being announced – but not the winners – on Friday. The results of that vote will be revealed on March 6 during ceremonies conducted from the PokerGO studios in Las Vegas.
A full list of the nominees for each award, as well as the option for the Fan Vote for the People’s Choice Awards, can be found at the Global Poker Awards website. Good luck to all the nominees – it will be an agonizing wait until March to see who will win the kudos for achievement at the 2020 Global Poker Awards!
