Poker News

After receiving nominations from more than 60 industry insiders (this journalist included), the 2015 Global Poker Index American Poker Awards, sponsored by PokerStars, has tabulated the results and set the final four contenders in a host of categories.

“I wish to thank each and every member of the Nomination Panel for taking part in the selection process for this very first edition of the GPI American Poker Awards,” GPI Chief Executive Officer Alexandre Dreyfus stated during the announcement of the final ballot. “We noticed some very interesting trends and I do believe that their selections reflect perfectly with what happened in the North American poker landscape in 2014.”

With the ballots set, let’s take a look at the nominees and make some predictions for who will win the awards (in bold). It’s an impressive list and any of the nominees would be worthy of winning the statuettes when they are handed out in February.

Tournament Performance of the Year

Mohsin Charania, WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Winner
Daniel Colman, Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event Winner
Darren Elias, WPT Borgata Poker Open Winner
Mark Newhouse, WSOP Main Event, ninth place

Although the other men in the category all won their respective events in impressive fashion, it is appropriate that Newhouse’s run at the 2014 WSOP is recognized for the achievement that it was. Newhouse battled his way through another massive field to make a second consecutive “November Nine,” something that will arguably never be seen again (doing it once is tough enough; doing in back-to-back years is simply outstanding). Although the ending was a bit of a disappointment (a second consecutive ninth place finish), Newhouse’s historic performance outshines even the victories of his three fellow nominees.

Breakout Player of the Year

Daniel Colman
Mukul Pahuja
Jake Schindler
Brandon Shack-Harris

Although I am a bit surprised that Dylan Wilkerson didn’t make the cut here (his poker history dating back to 2007 might have eliminated him), Shack-Harris is the true “breakout” player from this group. Colman, although he won the “Big One,” has been a known commodity for some time, much like Pahuja. Schindler could be a contender but, since he made his breakout in the High Roller field, his performance wasn’t as impressive as Shack-Harris’ double WSOP bracelet run and his runner-up performance for the WSOP Player of the Year (behind George Danzer). The scale tips ever so slightly for Shack-Harris, in my opinion.

Event of the Year ($2000-plus buy-in)

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event
WSOP Main Event
WPT Montreal
WPT World Championship

This is arguably one of the more difficult categories to handicap. Everyone looks for something different in a tournament and each of the nominees bring their own panache to the table. While the WSOP Main Event and the WPT World Championship have their legacies, it is the other two tournaments that bear watching. The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open continued to surprise as the Hard Rock fully backed up their $10 million guaranteed tournament even when it fell $2.5 million short last year; the WPT Montreal, held at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, has made a mark in their treatment of players at their events. By an ever-so-slim margin, I would cast my vote for the Seminole tournament as an encouragement for them to continue to stage the event.

Event of the Year (Under $2000 buy-in)

Heartland Poker Tour California State Championship
WPT500 at Aria
WSOP Millionaire Maker
WSOP Monster Stack

Although I have a fondness for the HPT, this category is pretty easy to pick. The WSOP Monster Stack tournament blew away expectations in drawing in a field of 7862 players, the largest non-WSOP Main Event field in the history of the event. Such occurrences aren’t common on the tournament poker circuit, thus the overwhelming pick has to be the Monster Stack.

Industry Person of the Year

Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director
Adam Pliska, WPT President
Matt Savage, WPT Executive Tour Director
Ty Stewart, WSOP Executive Director

It’s beyond time that those people who work “behind the scenes” of the tournament poker world earned a few accolades and there isn’t a better choice in this category than Savage. Perhaps it is a “legacy” award for the years of hard work that Savage has put into poker, but he is long overdue for some accolades.

Poker Media Content of the Year

All In Magazine, “Off the Felt” with Mark Newhouse
Brad Willis, PokerStars Blog
PokerNews, 2014 WSOP Live Reporting
Jason Somerville, “Run it Up”

Another extremely difficult category as all the nominees are strong. The All In Magazine expose on Newhouse, from his stirring run to the final table at the 2014 WSOP Main Event to his crushing departure, gets the nod in this category. For such short videos (each only lasted about 10-15 minutes), All In was able to capture the elation, the preparation and the ultimate and devastating end of Newhouse’s run with a brilliantly filmed mini-documentary. It was one of the best pieces of work from the poker journalism community for 2014 and deserved the award.

Charitable Initiative of the Year

All In for Kids Poker Tournament, CHOP & WPT Foundation
Charity Series of Poker
REG (Raising for Effective Giving) Charity
WSOP One Drop Partnership

All of these charitable causes are already winners for the various causes they support, but the Charity Series of Poker, founded by poker professional Matt Stout, has to get some encouragement here in the form of an APA win. Still in its relative infancy, the CSOP has been able to bring poker players together not only to battle it out for their own pocketbooks but also to be able to support such causes as Habitat for Humanity, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey and other worthy causes. The efforts by Stout (and Savage, demonstrating why he should win the Industry Person category) with the CSOP should be recognized with this award.

Poker Innovation or Initiative of the Year

Twitch (Live Streaming Poker)
Poker Night in America
WPT Partnerships outside of poker (Hublot, Monster headphones, etc.)
WSOP Monster Stack

Once again, the WSOP Monster Stack should take the gold in this category. There is nothing more stunning than to boldly step off into the abyss and not know if there’s that “invisible bridge” that will catch you on that step. The Monster Stack tournament could have been a miserable failure but, due to the players’ reaction to the event, it probably will become a staple at the WSOP.

By the way, everything stated above could be said about Poker Night in America also; if they were to take the award, it wouldn’t be a huge shock.

Media Person of the Year

Nolan Dalla
Chris Grove
Kevin Mathers
Rich Ryan

Although I have a preference for Dalla in this category due to his excellence over time, Grove has done some outstanding work over the past year in all aspects of poker journalism. He can be groundbreaking in some of the subjects he broaches and, for that, he should take the award for his work over the past year.

Awards for the Player of the Year, Female Player of the Year and the national Players of the Year for Canada and the United States have already been determined by the GPI standings for 2014. A “People’s Choice” Award, in which poker fans will be able to vote for Poker’s Best Ambassador, has opened its voting and will be honored during the GPI American Poker Awards ceremonies that will take place on February 27 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.

Good luck to all the nominees and the eventual winners of the inaugural American Poker Awards.

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