After a triumphant debut with the inaugural American Poker Awards in February, the Global Poker Index and its leader, Alexandre Dreyfus, now head back to a familiar ground as they prepare themselves for the 2015 European Poker Awards. The nominees for nine of the categories to be awarded have been announced, with the victors of those categories joining a handful of other recipients for the 2015 EPA show that will be held on March 25.
“The event will have a similar setup to the American Poker Awards,” Dreyfus stated during the announcement of the nominees. “However, this will be the first time the European Poker Awards will be held outside of France…we always had success at the EPT Deauville (the location of previous EPA awards ceremonies) and hopefully going to Malta during its inaugural European Poker Tour event will make it easier for the players to attend.”
Several of the awards have been pre-determined by the usage of the GPI rankings system. For European Player of the Year, Ole Schemion will pick up the award, duplicating his effort from 2013. On the ladies side of the table, Liv Boeree will be the recipient of the Female Player of the Year honors. Two other honors, for Poker’s Best Ambassador and the Lifetime Achievement Award, will be determined and announced during the awards ceremony on March 25. The other categories feature some strong players and difficult choices as to who takes home the trophy.
For Breakout Player of the Year, the choices run the gamut of Europe. Germany’s George Danzer, Poland’s Dominik Panka and England’s Oliver Price and Jack Salter are the nominees. Simply for what was an outstanding run at the 2014 World Series of Poker, where he won three bracelets, Danzer should be the choice in this category but Salter may provide a challenge.
Tournament Performance of the Year should also be an interesting category. Vicky Coren-Mitchell’s historic second EPT victory at the EPT San Remo, Martin Jacobson’s World Series of Poker Championship Event win, Panka’s taking of the 2014 EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure title and Davidi Kitai’s bracelet victory at the WSOP are all nominated, but the two choices are Coren-Mitchell and Jacobson; expect Coren-Mitchell to add another award to what is becoming a rather crowded shelf.
The two Event of the Year awards recognize the best that European poker has to offer. For buy-ins under €2000, the Battle of Malta, the Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona, the Eureka Poker Tour Prague and the WPT500 at Dusk Till Dawn are all in contention. For buy-ins over €2000, the choices are the EPT Barcelona Main Event, the EPT Prague Main Event, the EPT Vienna Main Event and the venerable Master Classics of Poker Amsterdam are the nominees.
There are two Media categories, each featuring outstanding nominees. For Media Person of the Year, Giovanni Angioni, Marc Convey, Lee Davy and Remko Rinkema are the difficult choices that face the electors. For Media Content of the Year, the EPT’s live commentary, the photography of Neil Stoddart, the videos from Rinkema and “Nosebleed” from Victor Saumont present another tough field.
The Industry Person of the Year will feature Hermance Blum, the General Manager of WPT Europe, Edgar Stuchly (president of the EPT), Leon Tsoukernik of King’s Casino and Dusk Till Dawn owner Rob Young competing for the award. Finally, in Poker Innovation of the Year PokerStars’ “Shark Cage,” Winamax Poker’s “Expresso” poker format, the WPT500 and Unibet launching its own gaming platform are the nominees and, in Charitable Initiative of the Year, the Helping Hands Charity Tournament, the WPT UK Charity Raffle, the Right to Play, Quintessentially Foundation and the REG charitable cause are vying for the award.
The 2015 European Poker Awards will be held in conjunction with the EPT Malta at the Portomaso Casino on March 25. Much like its counterpart in the U. S., a day-long series of seminars will lead to the actual awards ceremony, when the world will learn who were the “best of the best” in Europe from 2014.
