It’s that time of year when privileged persons of the poker community get to wear a tuxedo or low-cut dress, crack out the cane, and even stuff a lop-eared white bunny under the arm.
Red carpets were made for walking.
On Friday 6 March, the Global Poker Index (GPI) and PokerGO Studios, Aria Las Vegas, host the Global Poker Awards (GPA) ceremony, and the high roller contingent feature prominently.
There are 25 trophies to hand out, coupled to 25 associated speeches that will find their way into the PokerGo Studios air-conditioning ducts, and PokerGO is showcasing the whole shebang, live.
Maria Ho and Drea Renee will co-emcee the event. Both of these mighty fine females featured last year with Renee co-hosting with Ali Nejad, and Ho picking up the award for Broadcaster of the Year.
Let’s have a look at how the high stakes stratum fits into this one.
Player of the Year Awards
High Stakes players dominated the 2019 Player of the Year (PoY) rankings. For the second successive year, power-couple Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell earned the GPI PoY titles for the overall and female distinctions.
Here is a roll-call on the rest of the high stakes winners.
Player of the Year Awards (Region/Country)
Stephen Chidwick – Europe
Danny Tang – Asia
Farid Jattin – Latin America
Yake Wu – China
Juha Helppi – Finland
Tsugunari Toma – Japan
Dario Sammartino – Italy
Ali Imsirovic – Bosnia
Sam Greenwood – Canada
Kahle Burns – Australia
Chin Wei Lim – Malaysia
Rainer Kempe – Germany
Pete Chen – Taiwan
Orpen Kisacikoglu – Turkey
Adrian Mateos – Spain
Joao Vieira – Portugal
People’s Choice For Hand of the Year
The Triton Super High Roller Series features in the ‘People’s Choice for Hand of the Year’, with Sam Trickett’s ballsy bluff against Stephen Chidwick at the Triton Million event, one of the favourites.
Here is the short-list.
Bryce Yockey takes a historic hit against Josh Arieh in the WSOP Poker Players Championship
Ryan Riess makes a 10-high all-in call at EPT Monte Carlo final table
Sam Trickett makes Stephen Chidwick fold the best hand at Triton London 1M event
Thi Xoa Nguyen folds full house to Athanasios Polychronopoulos at PSPC
GPI Breakout Player of the Year
Aaron Van Blarcum and George Wolff have had tremendous success in high stakes live tournaments in 2019, and they feature on the short-list for the ‘GPI Breakout Player of the Year.’
Final Table Performance of the Year
Bryn Kenney appears in the short-list, twice, thanks to his win at the Aussie Millions Main Event, and his second-place at Triton Million London. Alex Foxen is in the mix thanks to his victory at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Philip Hui is in with a shout for his victory at the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and Chino Rheem’s win at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event also features.
Twitter Personality
Daniel Negreanu is the sole high stakes player in the running for the ‘Twitter Personality of the Year’, and given his high-level of output, he has to be one of the favourites.
Vlogger of the Year
Negreanu is also a favourite to land the ‘Vlogger of the Year’ award, although Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme will run him close.
Industry Person of the Year
Triton co-founder, Paul Phua, is in the running for ‘Industry Person of the Year,’ thanks to his sterling work in the high stakes scene. Cary Katz receives a nomination for the same reason, thanks to his work with Poker Central. Phil Galfond makes the shortlist for his work with Run It Once, and so does Rob Yong for all the work he is doing in front and behind the scenes of the poker industry.
Event of the Year
Finally, The Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity is one of the favourites to take the title so commonly handed out to the WSOP Main Event.
In the New York Times Bestseller, ‘Reality is Broken’, author Jane McGonigal talks about the four core elements every game must possess for it to become as sticky as a wren’s nest.
A motivating feedback system is one of them.
Some believe awards ceremonies are for the people who peel their back from the gym wall last, but without the Global Poker Awards (GPA), and the other institutions that create motivational feedback, all poker has is the macabre, menacing, mayhem of Twitter.
Poker is a game, but so is life.