Nominees Announced for the GPI European Poker Awards

Players across the poker community may be looking forward to a new year in poker, but the Global Poker Index is still keeping one eye fixed on last year’s performances.

Having partnered with the European Poker Awards in the latter half of 2012, the GPI will be sponsoring the lavish ceremony set to take place at the famous Aviation Club, Paris, on January 22^nd.

A host of poker industry experts will join some of Europe’s best players inside France’s most prestigious poker room, before heading across Paris to the fabulous Elysees Biarritz for a classic French feast.

Only one trophy will be automatically awarded during the ceremony and that’s for the highest ranked European GPI player in 2012: Marvin Rettenmaier.

The rest  of the awards will be decided just before the event by such figures as the GPI’s CEO, Alex Dreyfus, Joe Beevers, Barry Carter and Nic Szeremeta.

Before the Christmas break the full list of nominees from was released, with a number of players earning at least two nominations:

Rookie of the year: Gaëlle Baumann, Lucille Cailly, Aubin Cazals, Ole Schemion.

Best Tournament performance: Davidi Kitai, Rocco Palumbo, Marvin Rettenmaier, Ole Schemion, Sam Trickett.

Europe’s Leading Lady: Gaëlle Baumann, Liv Boeree, Lucille Cailly, Elisabeth Hille.

Internet Player of the year: Viktor Blom, Jens Kyllönen, Chris Moorman, Ilari Sahamies.

Poker Staff Person of the year: Dave Brannan, Nicolas Fraioli, Neil Johnson, Simon Trumper.

Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of the year: Neil Channing, Bertrand Grospellier, Tony Guoga, Gus Hansen, Marvin Rettenmaier, Kara Scott.

Best European Event of the year: EPT Barcelona, Irish Poker Open, Prague Poker Festival, WSOPE Cannes

After learning about his nomination for a trio of awards, we asked Marvin how he felt: “It feels great to get a lot of recognition for the mad year that I’ve had. I am really enjoying things right now and I hope I can keep it up in 2013!“