The American Poker Awards and its very best moments.
The 3rd Annual Global Poker Index American Poker Awards was celebrated yesterday and gathered many of the brightest stars, breakout players, as well as standout industry influencers of poker throughout the Americas.
With 2016 marking another dynamic year for American's poker growth, the expert jury had tougher decisions than ever before.This years awards continued many of the same categories and the same voting process of previous editions :a nomination panel of 70 people from the industry, media and players community voted through January to set a final shortlist of nominees from which a final jury voted for the winners the very same day of the ceremony.
The ceremony was hosted at the Sofitel Hotel in central Beverly Hills, California and it was preceded as usual by the American Awards Conference. Global Poker Index streamead the whole conference so you can wath it here via Youtube or at GPI Twitch channel although we must warned quality is not great.
After the conference and the official reception, it was the time for the dinner and the Awards. We have gathered here a selection of best non-official moments of the night.
-BEST PODCAST OF THE YEAR went to Joe Ingram and his weekly youtube podcast. We can see him here with another nominee for the same award, Daniel Negreanu.
We fuckin did it!!!!! Podcast of the Year 🚀🚀🚀🚀 #AmericanPokerAwards pic.twitter.com/7ZDoY5IWQI
— gN Prop Bet King (@Joeingram1) 24 de febrero de 2017
-MOMENT OF THE YEAR AND BEST AMERICAN POKER TWITCH AWARD (sponsored by Twitch) went to Jason Mercier, who got double prize, same as he got two WSOP bracelets last year. We can see here when he got this award worth second bracelet and how he posed with his wife and the two awards.
That would be #5 ...2nd one this summer.
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) 18 de junio de 2016
Shipped the 10k horse for 422k and a ton more on the side. #TwoDownOneToGo pic.twitter.com/75mXHAdmVF
Extremely honored to win "Moment of the Year" for my Wsop run ! 2 awards in one night 😝 #FeelingGood pic.twitter.com/u8QOaTqZv6
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) 24 de febrero de 2017
The INDUSTRY PERSON OF THE YEAR award usually orientated to casino and tournament staff went to Sean McCormack, director of operations of Aria Casino in Las Vegas.
@gpi Event of the year: Super High Roller Bowl @ARIAPoker #thisishowwevegas pic.twitter.com/hH3rwHMpVC
— ARIA Poker (@ARIAPoker) 24 de febrero de 2017
The JURY PRIZE went to Matt Savage,Executive Tour Director of the World Poker Tour. We can see here Mike Sexton, another of the nominees but not awarded this time, celebrating with Matt Savage.
RT @MikeSexton_WPT: Partying at American Poker Awards w/ Jury winner @SavagePoker, @MaryannSavage, & @LynnGilmartin pic.twitter.com/Pyvtw3Wqsh
— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) 24 de febrero de 2017
The GPI FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR determined exclusively by the Global Poker Index’s scoring formula went to Cate Hall.
Wowww @SamAbernathyy put my award up on her Instagram & cropped my name out so ppl would think it was hers, what a scumbag, tell yr friends pic.twitter.com/qbCT5xrYjw
— Cate Hall (@catehall) 24 de febrero de 2017
POKER MEDIA MOMENT OF THE YEAR went to Lance Bradley and its poker article Bob, Charlie and a Life-Changing WSOP Main Event Journey for Pocketfive. You can read the full article here.
Just want to send a huge thank you to everybody who reached out tonight with kind words. Means the world to me!
— Lance Bradley (@Lance_Bradley) 24 de febrero de 2017
There were many more awards and for sure there was a lot of fun, as we can see pictures of everybody taking pictures with the awards, even if they weren't theirs, like Doug Polk below .You can check them all in GPI official website.
Congrats Dan on winning the Podcast of the Year Award! @DougPolkPoker #lolGPL #AmericanPokerAwards pic.twitter.com/gJLmwLMJxz
— LasVegasMoneymakers (@LASMoneymakers) 24 de febrero de 2017