The 5th Annual Global Poker Awards Honors the Top Performers of 2023
- Weng, Foxen, & Pupillo get their hardware
- Doyle Brunson awarded Poker Icon
- Stone, Nejad, Spragg, & Burton breakthrough
- More trophies for Chidwick, Magnus, Comeskey, & Liow
LAS VEGAS, February 24, 2024 – The PokerGO® Studio at Aria Resort & Casino hosted the 5th annual Global Poker Awards (GPAs) this evening in Las Vegas as the stars of the poker community in 2023 were put in the spotlight.
A total of 29 trophies were handed out including Player of the Year honors for Bin Weng, Kristen Foxen, and Nick Pupillo. Impressively, this was Kristen’s fourth Female Global Poker Index PoY win. Bin and Nick picked up their first GPA along with Jans Arends (Breakout Player), Toby Stone (Tournament Director), Ali Nejad (Broadcaster), Marle Spragg (X/Twitter Personality), Jaman Burton (Vlogger), Daniel Sepiol (Final Table), and Bert Stevens (Streamer).
2023 was an exciting year for the poker community and some of the stars in the industry continued their stellar performance from previous years. For the third straight time and remaining as the only winner of the prestigious award, Stephen Chidwick was voted as Players Choice Toughest Opponent. His fourth GPA.
The 2021 GPI Female PoY Nadya Magnus’ charitable community initiative was recognized as an award-worthy achievement collecting her second GPA. Caitlin Comeskey was once again recognized for her incredible content creation. After picking up the Rising Star in Content Creation award last year, Caitlin took home the Best Short-Term Content award this year. Greg Liow also saw his content creation awarded in back-to-back years. The Chip Race returned to the top in the Best Podcast after collecting the award for 2018.
For the likes of Jaman Burton, Toby Stone, and Ali Nejad, their continued efforts and ability to entertain the poker masses were finally validated with wins in their field having been nominated multiple times in previous years. The World Poker Tour (WPT) has won a handful of awards over the years and grabbed another one this year with WPT Prime voted as Best Mid-Major Tour. However, WPT CEO Adam Pliska got his first GPA nod winning Industry Person of the Year.
As the night wound down, there were some emotional moments as the In Memorium video was played, paying tribute to those we lost in 2023. The video ended with poker legend Doyle Brunson and his wife Louise. For his lifetime of dedication and achievements in the game of poker, Doyle was announced as this year’s Poker Icon recipient. The award was accepted by the President of PokerGO, Mori Eskandani. Mori’s team also won Best Media Content – Video for their ‘Doyle Brunson Celebration of Life’ piece.
5th GLOBAL POKER AWARDS WINNERS
PLAYER OF THE YEAR (POY): Bin Weng
FEMALE POY: Kristen Foxen
MID-MAJOR POY: Nick Pupillo
GPI BREAKOUT PLAYER: Jans Arends
BEST INDUSTRY PERSON: Adam Pliska
BEST TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: Toby Stone
BEST STAND-ALONE FESTIVAL/SERIES: Wynn Millions
BEST EVENT: WSOP Main Event
BEST MID-MAJOR CIRCUIT/TOUR: WPT Prime
BEST BROADCASTER: Ali Nejad
CHARITABLE/COMMUNITY INITIATIVE: Nadya Magnus
BEST FINAL TABLE PERFORMANCE: Daniel Sepiol at WPT Championship
GPI AWARD OF MERIT: GG Poker Game of Gold
POKER ICON: Doyle Brunson
HENDON MOB AWARD: Casey Kastle
BEST X/TWITTER PERSONALITY: Marle Spragg
BEST VLOGGER: Jaman Burton
PLAYERS CHOICE TOUGHEST OPPONENT: Stephen Chidwick
BEST PODCAST: The Chip Race
POKERGO PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Isaac Haxton
BEST SHORT-FORM CONTENT CREATOR: Caitlin Comeskey
BEST STREAMER: Bert “Girafganger” Stevens
FAN’S CHOICE – PERSONALITY: Greg ‘Greg Goes All In’ Liow
FAN’S CHOICE – BEST LIVE STREAM: PokerStars Live
FAN’S CHOICE – BEST TROPHY: Asian Poker Tour Taipei Lion Trophy
FAN’S CHOICE – BEST HAND: Triton London
BEST MEDIA CONTENT – PHOTO: Rachel Kay Winter “Schulman Cool”
BEST MEDIA CONTENT – VIDEO: PokerGO: Doyle Brunson Celebration of Life
BEST MEDIA CONTENT – WRITTEN: The Tales of Billy Baxter: The Final Days of Stu Ungar (David Hill for WPT.com)
For further information:
Anthony Charter
PR & Communications Manager
About GPI/THM
Global Poker Index® (GPI) is live tournament poker’s ranking authority, classifying over 800,000 active players from over 100 countries across over 35,000 festivals. GPI’s Hendon Mob Poker Database (THM) has archived over 550,000 live poker tournaments and 4.5 million individual results and is continually updated via real-time data collection from over 2,500 partner venues. Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob are trading names of Mediarex Group, a global sports and entertainment organization, founded in Malta in 2012. For more information, visit http://globalpokerindex.com/ and http://thehendonmob.com/
About PokerGO®
PokerGO® is the world’s largest poker content company delivering poker’s most premier live events around the world to consumers. The platform delivers more than 100 days of live poker on an annual basis, streaming PokerGO® owned and operated tournaments such as the Super High Roller Bowl, Poker Masters, U.S. Poker Open, and PokerGO Cup, along with select World Series of Poker final tables and more. PokerGO’s video-on-demand library includes original content that provides unmatched access to the world of poker, including “High Stakes Poker,” “No Gamble, No Future,” and “High Stakes Duel.” PokerGO curates programming that spans from expert commentary on the game to tales of iconic
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