It’s that time of year again. The best in poker will be recognized and honored by the Global Poker Index (GPI), The Hendon Mob (THM), and PokerGO.
This year will be the 4th Annual Global Poker Awards, which will focus on everything from the 2022 calendar year. It will allow panel voting and public voting on a range of categories while also awarding trophies to the poker players who won the GPI Player of the Year races.
March 3 will be the date and the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas will be the place for the only awards ceremony that focuses on the best of the best in the global poker industry.
When and Where
The announcement this week specified that the 4th Annual Global Poker Awards will take place on Friday, March 3. The PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas will host the ceremony and present it for a free livestream for the public to watch.
Most of the winners are not yet known, and the GPI has yet to even release the full list of categories. They did hint that some categories – Poker ICON, Toughest Opponent, Best Vlogger – will return. And some of the new categories will include Rising Star in Content Creation and Fave Live Stream.
There will be a select panel of industry insiders who will serve as judges on a panel for some of the voting. While the GPI won’t reveal the list of panel members until a later date, they will be transparent about the selection of those members and the voting process. As in past years, the public will vote for some awards categories as well.
Three Known Award Winners
There are three categories that have chosen winners already. That is because those categories are determined by the Global Poker Index rankings. The Player of the Year leaderboards use a particular scoring system, and results determine the winners.
As the new year got underway, the winners for the 2022 Players of the Year were made official:
GPI Player of the Year: Stephen SongGPI Female Player of the Year: Cherish AndrewsGPI Mid-Major Player of the Year: Stephen Song
https://twitter.com/gpi/status/1610751909505208325?s=20&t=HXxEI-Va1qUJvUcmCBTVYA
All of the other categories will also reflect performances and accomplishments from 2022. The exceptions will be any overall career or lifetime achievement awards.
Last Year’s Winners
Not everyone will remember who won awards last year.
There were some very memorable ones, though, as the GPI and THM awarded the Poker ICON award to Mike Sexton posthumously. Vince Van Patten accepted the award on his friend’s behalf.
The Best Charitable Initiative award went to Veronica Brill, who raised funds to purchase an accessible van for poker player K.L. Cleeton. It was the only way for him to travel to Vegas for the World Series of Poker, and Brill organized the fundraiser to pay for the van.
https://twitter.com/gpi/status/1493677775596761091?s=20&t=0B1BBgpd7UWGsCNDcuCrjw
The Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby presented the THM Achievement Award to Kevin Mathers, known to most in the community as Kevmath. For his constant dissemination of information to the poker community through Twitter, they surprised him with an award for his years of contributions.
https://twitter.com/gpi/status/1494861849078091781?s=20&t=MIshshzI7LhELLkmskuRDg
And the Global Poker Index gave its GPI Award of Merit to Maria Konnikova, a best-selling New York Times author who immersed herself in the poker community and wrote The Biggest Bluff about it. She also became a regular member of the poker community in the process.
As for the POY winners last year, representing the 2021 year, Nadya Magnus won the Female POY, and David Mzareulov won the Mid-Major POY. The overall POY and PokerGO Tour POY awards both went to Ali Imsirovic, who has since been mostly booted from the poker community since then under a dark cloud of cheating allegations. It is safe to say he will not be at this year’s ceremony.
The rest of the winners were:
-Best Tournament Director: Paul Campbell-Best Final Table Performance: Adam Friedman at WSOP Dealer’s Choice Championship-Best Twitter Personality: Jamie Kerstetter-Best Media Content (Photo): Enrique Malfavon for PokerGO at WSOP Main Event bubble-Best Trophy (Fan Choice): Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup-Best Live Tournament Reporter: Christian Zetszche-Best Media Content (Written): Lance Bradley for Isai Scheinberg piece for PocketFives-Best Vlogger: Brad Owen-Best Event: WSOP Main Event-GPI Breakout Player: Johan Guilbert -Best Hand (Fan Choice): Doug Polk versus Phil Hellmuth on High Stakes Poker
-Best Podcast: Poker in the Ears with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton-Toughest Opponent (Player Choice): Ali Imsirovic-Best Industry Person: Matt Savage-Best Media Content (Video): Remko Rinkema for Run It Back on PokerGO-Poker Personality (People’s Choice): Masato Yokosawa-Best Streamer: Benjamin Spragg-Best Broadcaster: Jeff Platt
