The 2nd Annual Global Poker Awards Celebrated 25 of Poker’s Best Including Poker ICON Recipient Johnny Chan

The PokerGO Studio was glowing Friday night as the brightest stars in the game gathered in Las Vegas at the Aria for the second annual Global Poker Awards.

The night kicked off with poker power couple Kristen Bicknell and Alex Foxen receiving Global Poker Index (GPI) Players of the Year for the second year in a row. Bicknell claiming the Female PoY for the third straight time.

This year saw many back-to-back award winners. Joining Bicknell and Foxen were Lex Veldhuis for Streamer, Andrew Neeme for Vlogger, and RUNGOOD Poker Series for Mid-Major Tour/Circuit. Drew Amato also received an award for the second straight year for his expertise in photography.

Five new awards were introduced for 2019. Jamie Kerstetter was the first winner to take home the Twitter Personality award and Stehpen Chidwick was voted as the Toughest Opponent by his peers. Ryan Riess became the inaugural winner of Hand of the Year for his ten-high all in call at EPT Monte Carlo and Media Content of the Year was divided into three categories; Written, photo, and video.

Joey Ingram was the only person to collect multiple pieces of hardware for his efforts in 2019. Ingram was voted by his peers as Journalist of the Year and also received a Media Content award for video.

There were two legends of the game honored Friday night. Replacing the Lifetime Achievement award, Johnny Chan was presented the first Poker ICON award by Mori Eskandani and GPI/THM’s own Roland Boothby presented The Hendon Mob award to “Miami John” Cernuto for becoming the first player to reach 500 results.

Shaun Deeb won the Pocket Fives Legacy Award and Scott Wellenbach get honoured for his Charitable Initiative. 

Winners in Bold/Italic 🏆

GPI BREAKOUT PLAYER OF THE YEAR

• Robert Campbell (AUS) 🏆

• Ramon Colillas (ESP)

• Ben Farrell (UK)

• George Wolff (USA)

FINAL TABLE PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

• Hossein Ensan (GER), WSOP Main Event

• William Alex Foxen (USA), WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic

• Phillip Hui (USA), WSOP Poker Players Championship 🏆

• Bryn Kenney (USA), Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro

TWITTER PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

• Barny Boatman (UK)

• Jamie Kerstetter (USA) 🏆

• Kitty Kuo (TAI)

• Kevin Mathers (USA)

PLAYERS CHOICE FOR TOUGHEST OPPONENT

• Michael Addamo (AUS)

• Kahle Burns (AUS)

• Stephen Chidwick (UK) 🏆

• Ali Imsirovic (BIH)

STREAMER OF THE YEAR

• Hristivoje Pavlovic (AUS)

• Benjamin Spragg (UK)

• Matthew Staples (CAN)

• Lex Veldhuis (NED) 🏆

VLOGGER OF THE YEAR

• Jaman Burton (USA)

• Andrew Neeme (USA) 🏆

• Daniel Negreanu (CAN)

• Brad Owen (USA)

PODCAST OF THE YEAR

• DAT Poker Podcast: Terrence Chan, Ross Henry, Adam Schwartz, Daniel Negreanu (CAN)

• Poker Life Podcast: Joey Ingram (USA)

• The Fives, a PocketFives Podcast: Lance Bradley (CAN), Donnie Peters (USA)

• The Grid: Jennifer Shahade (USA) 🏆

INDUSTRY PERSON OF THE YEAR

• Phil Galfond (USA), Run it Once Poker

• Cary Katz (USA), Poker Central/PokerGO

• Paul Phua (MAS), Triton Poker 🏆

• Matt Savage (USA), WPT/TDA

TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

• Tony Burns (USA), Semionle Hard Rock

• Paul Campbell (USA), Aria

• Jack Effel (USA), World Series of Poker

• Matt Savage (USA), WPT/TDA 🏆

EVENT OF THE YEAR

• PokerStars Players Championship Bahamas 🏆

• Triton London Million for Charity

• World Series of Poker Main Event

• World Series of Poker BIG 50

MID-MAJOR TOUR/CIRCUIT OF THE YEAR

• Road to PSPC

• RUNGOOD Poker Series 🏆

• WPTDeepStacks

• WSOP Circuit

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

• Lance Bradley (CAN)

• Haley Hintze (USA)

• Joey Ingram (USA) 🏆

• Nick Jones (UK)

BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

• Jamie Kerstetter (USA)

• Jeff Platt (USA)

• Nick Schulman (USA) 🏆

• Joseph Stapleton (USA)

MEDIA CONTENT OF THE YEAR: WRITTEN

• A Fight for Fatherhood: The Biggest Win of Jason Young’s Life, Lance Bradley (CAN) for PocketFives

• Kevin Roster Spread Sarcoma Awareness at WSOP, Wants to End Life on His Terms, Aleeyah Jadavji (CAN), Hayley Hochstetler (USA) for PokerNews

• Poker and Pop Culture, Martin Harris (USA) for D+B Publishing 🏆

• The Unabridged Story of The Hendon Mob, Paul Seaton (UK) for PokerNews

MEDIA CONTENT OF THE YEAR: PHOTO

• Antonio Abrego (USA): Ryan Laplante in deep thought at the WSOP (PokerNews)

• Drew Amato (USA): Dario Sammartino folds at the WSOP (Poker Central) 🏆

• Joe Giron (USA): WPT Champion Frank Stepuchin is lifted in victory (WPT)

• Hayley Hochstetler (USA): Doyle Brunson and Jack Binion at WSOP celebration (WSOP)

MEDIA CONTENT OF THE YEAR: VIDEO

• Investigating Mike Postle Hand Histories from Stones Live, Joey Ingram (USA) 🏆

• Legends of the Game – Stu Ungar (PokerGO)

• The Big Blind w/Jeff Platt featuring Mike Matusow, Normand Chad, Sarah Herring (PokerGO)

• Who Makes Money from Professional Poker, Sam Rega (USA) for CNBC

PEOPLE’S CHOICE FOR POKER PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

• Joey Ingram (USA)

• Jonathan Little (USA) 🏆

• Ryan DePaulo (USA)

• Lex Veldhuis (NED)

PEOPLE’S CHOICE FOR HAND OF THE YEAR

• Bryce Yockey takes a historic hit against Josh Arieh in the WSOP Poker Players Championship

• Ryan Riess makes 10-high all-in call at EPT Monte Carlo final table 🏆

• Sam Trickett makes Stephen Chidwick fold best hand at Triton London 1M event

• Thi Xoa Nguyen folds full house to Athanasios Polychronopoulos at PSPC