On February 27th, 2015, the first American Poker Awards Ceremony took place in Beverly Hills. Around 200 guests showed up for the event and Daniel Colman, who didn't attend the event, took home the most prestigious award: GPI Poker Player of the Year.
Global Poker Index boss Alexandre Dreyfus and his crew are now preparing for the 2015 European Poker Awards, which will be held on March 25th at the Hilton Hotel in St Julian's, Malta, in conjunction with EPT Malta. In total, 13 awards will be handed out at the 14th edition of the European Poker Awards and approx. 150 guest will attend the event.
"The event will have a similar setup to the American Poker Awards," explained Dreyfus. "But this will be the first time the European Poker Awards will be held outside of France and hopefully going to Malta during its inaugural European Poker Tour event will make it easier for the players to attend."
Poker's Best Ambassador and Lifetime Achievement awards will both will be decide by vote on March 25th. Here are the remaining 9 catagories and nominees.
Breakout Player of the Year:
• George Danzer, Dominik Panka, Oliver Price, Jack Salter
Tournament Performance of the Year:
• Victoria Coren-Mitchell, Martin Jacobson, Davidi Kitai, Dominik Panka
Event of the Year (Up to €2,000):
• Battle of Malta, Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona, Eureka Poker Tour Prague, WPT500 at Dusk Til Dawn
Event of the Year (Over €2,000):
• EPT Barcelona, EPT Prague, EPT Vienna, Master Classics of Poker Amsterdam
Poker Innovation or Initiative of the Year:
• Expresso (Winamax), Shark Cage (PokerStars), Unibet launching its own platform, WPT500 expansion to new markets
Charitable Initiative of the Year:
• Helping Hands Charity Tournament, REG Charity, Right to Play Foundation, WPT UK Charity Raffle
Industry Person of the Year:
• Hermance Blum (WPT), Edgar Stuchly (EPT President), Leon Tsoukernik (King's Casino), Rob Young (DTD owner)
EUROPEAN POKER AWARDS NOMINATION PANEL & JURY
The Global Poker Index European Poker Awards Nomination Panel will consist of 60 and 80 of the foremost experts of the poker industry and the live tournament circuit. Panel members will include members of the poker media, casino staff, tournament directors and organizers, sports media members and poker event sponsors. Panel members will be asked to provide a maximum of two names for each category they will be asked to vote on.
source: highstakesdb.com and europeanpokerawards.com