Poker legend Doyle Brunson amongst 20 honored at the first Global Poker Awards
Las Vegas was a buzz on Friday. Not only were the Vegas Golden Knights, Jimmy Kimmel and the Country Music Awards in town, the GPI were hosting the very first Global Poker Awards, presented by PokerStars, at the PokerGO Studio.
Twenty trophies were handed out that night. Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell were the first two honored, receiving their Player of the Year trophies.
Heavy favorites Andrew Neeme and Lex Veldhuis came through, winning Vlogger and Streamer of the Year while John Cynn and the World Series of Poker each did their part to ensure the WSOP Main Event winning two trophies.
Those in attendance erupted in cheers when Maria Ho won the Poker Broadcaster of the Year trophy; Maria’s winner’s speech certainly did not disappoint.
But the most special moment of the night came when American Poker Award Lifetime Achievement Award winner Mori Eskandani honored Doyle Brunson, the very first Global Poker Award recipient for Lifetime Achievement. Brunson received his trophy on the day after the awards ceremony.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Photos can be found on our Facebook Page
TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE – JOHN CYNN
- Justin Bonomo (Super High Roller Bowl IV)
- John Cynn (WSOP Main Event)
- Maria Lampropulos (PCA Main Event)
- Dylan Linde (WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic)
BREAKOUT PLAYER – ALI IMSIROVIC
- Almedin “Ali” Imsirovic
- Maria Konnikova
- Ping Liu
- Christopher Michael Soyza
STREAMER OF THE YEAR – LEX VELDHUIS
- Jeff Gross
- Jason Somerville
- Jaime Staples
- Lex Veldhuis
VLOGGER OF THE YEAR – ANREW NEEME
- Marle Cordeiro
- Joe Ingram
- Andrew Neeme
- Daniel Negreanu
- Doug Polk
PODCAST – THE CHIP RACE POKER PODCAST
- LFG Podcast (Chad Holloway, Jamie Kerstetter)
- PokerCentral Podcast (Brent Hanks, Remko Rinkema)
- PokerNews Podcast (Sarah Herring, Jeff Platt)
- The Chip Race Poker Podcast (David Lappin, Dara O’Kearney)
- The Fives a PocketFives.com Podcast (Lance Bradley, Donnie Peters)
BROADCASTER – MARIA HO
- Maria Ho
- Lon McEachern
- Nick Schulman
- Lex Veldhuis
POKER JOURNALIST – SARAH HERRING
- Drew Amato
- Sarah Herring
- Remko Rinkema
- Christian Zetzsche
MEDIA CONTENT – LANCE BRADLEY
- Drew Amato (photo: Brunson bids farewell to WSOP)
- Lance Bradley (book: The Pursuit of Poker Success)
- Haley Hintze (article: Vayo v. PokerStars)
- PokerCentral/GO (Super High Roller Club: Schulman featuring Nejad)
INDUSTRY PERSON – ANGELICA HAEL
- Angelica Hael (World Poker Tour)
- Cary Katz (Poker Central)
- Matt Savage (WPT, TDA, more)
- Ty Stewart (World Series of Poker)
- Rob Yong (Dusk Till Dawn, partypoker)
TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR – PAUL CAMPBELL
- Tony Burns (Seminole Hard Rock)
- Paul Campbell (ARIA)
- Jack Effel (WSOP)
- Kenny Hallaert (Unibet Open)
MID-MAJOR TOUR/CIRCUIT – RUNGOOD POKER SERIES
- 888poker Live
RUNGOOD Poker Series- Unibet Open
- WPTDeepStacks
- WSOP Circuit
EVENT OF THE YEAR – WSOP MAIN EVENT
- partypoker Caribbean Poker Party Main Event
- Super High Roller Bowl IV
- WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic
- WSOP Main Event
MOMENT OF THE YEAR – JUSTIN BONOMO
- Jeremy Hilsercop receives PSPC Platinum Pass (with help from Joe Ingram, Arlie Shaban, the poker community and PokerStars) as video of wife gifting him
trip to WSOP on Christmas day goes viral - Joe Cada wins WSOP The Closer; registering for the event moments after
remarkable 5th place finish in WSOP Main Event - Doyle Brunson plays his final WSOP event
- Justin Bonomo wins Big One for One Drop, completing Super High Roller Streak (SHRBChina, SHRBIV, One Drop)
2018 GPI Poker Player of the Year Alex Foxen & 2018 GPI Female Player of the Year Kristen Bicknell
Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poker – Doyle Brunson
Charitable Initiative – Robbie Strazynski
Jury Prize – Drew Amato
PocketFives Legacy Award – Chris Moorman
People’s Choice Award for Poker Personality of the Year – Brad Owen
For media inquiries and pictures, contact the GPI Awards team: [email protected]
About GPI/THM
Global Poker Index (GPI) is live tournament poker’s ranking authority – classifying more than 500,000 active players from almost 100 countries across 200,000 events. GPI’s Hendon Mob Poker Database has archived over 380,000 live poker tournaments and over 2.7 million individual
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