On Friday night, the ‘best of the best’ in North American poker came together for the inaugural American Poker Awards. After a day of seminars and forums addressing issues in the game, the finale was the actual awards show hosted by Kara Scott, capping a hugely successful debut.
The World Series of Poker drew the most attention from the dozen awards handed out, taking home two of the major awards during the evening. For Event of the Year with an under $2000 buy-in, the WSOP Monster Stack took home the AMA and, for Event of the Year with more than a $2000 buy-in, the WSOP Main Event earned the honors. Three other awards had ties with the WSOP when Brandon Shack-Harris (runner up for 2015 WSOP Player of the Year) won the Breakout Player of the Year award, Mark Newhouse earned the Tournament Performance of the Year award for his back-to-back runs at the WSOP “November Nine” and Brad Willis from the PokerStars blog took the Media Content of the Year award for his stirring story “WSOP 2014: Stages/Never Stop Fighting.”
The World Poker Tour earned two awards for its work through the 2014 calendar year and one other award. In what was a very tough field (WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage and WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart were all nominees), WPT President Adam Pliska was the winner of the Industry Person of the Year award. For Charitable Initiative of the Year, the honor went to the “All in for Kids” poker tournament put on by the WPT Foundation, the charitable wing of the company, and CHOP. Finally, in the specially-chosen Lifetime Achievement Award, the founder of the WPT, Steve Lipscomb, was recognized for his vision in creating the tournament circuit.
The Player of the Year awards were handed out for North America and the two recipients came as little surprise to the 200+ attendees of the ceremonies. After a year that saw him seemingly win every High Roller event in sight, Dan Colman was honored with the GPI Player of the Year award. For her work throughout 2014, Vanessa Selbst picked up the GPI Female Player of the Year honors, something that might become a fixture on her mantelpiece. Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove was the well-deserved recipient of the Media Person of the Year trophy, highlighting his excellent work over 2014.
In what was perhaps the biggest surprise of the night’s awards, the Innovation of the Year went outside of the poker community. Instead of honoring the syndicated Poker Night in America, the WSOP Monster Stack event or the marketing and partnerships formed by the WPT, the award for Poker Innovation or Initiative of the Year went to the video platform Twitch and its introduction of poker content. In getting the award, Twitch will probably get several new followers from the poker community for its ever-growing poker channel content. Finally, in a fan-voted award, the honor of Poker’s Best Ambassador was received by Daniel Negreanu.
Beyond the awards themselves, the American Poker Awards and its creator, Alexandre Dreyfus, were commended for their efforts and a fine presentation. “Really cool night last night…Congratulations to Alexandre Dreyfus and his team on a job well done!” Matt Savage Tweeted following the festivities. “One of the most exciting nights in poker history due to Alexandre Dreyfus and the GPI staff,” Nolan Dalla noted over Twitter. “Thanks for elevating the game.” Poker Hall of Famer and WPT announcer Mike Sexton also sounded off over Twitter, saying, “Congrats to all the winners (and losers) and the American Poker Awards. Thanks to Alexandre Dreyfus to make it happen. It was a great evening.”
Kudos indeed must be extended to Dreyfus and the GPI for creating the awards in the first place and then bringing off an event that is truly a celebration of the game of poker. Here’s looking forward to next year when the American Poker Awards makes its triumphant return.
