On Wednesday night at the Aviation Club in Paris, France the 2011 European Poker Awards were handed out. Among the winners of the coveted awards were Sam Trickett (Poker Player of the Year) and Pius Heinz (Best Tournament Performance) with longtime poker insider Jesse May heading home with the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Overall there were very few surprises/upsets on the evening with all of the major categories pretty much going according to the script. As someone who never passes up a chance at gambling for real money, perhaps the only surprise in my eyes being the choice of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier as the Poker Personality of the Year beating out Jesse May and Tony G among others for the award –a strange choice since ElkY doesn’t really blog about the poker world like Tony G.

The European Poker Awards has been handing out awards since 2001 when the first ceremony was held, honoring Player of the Year, Marcel Luske; Tournament Performance of the Year, Simon Trumper; Rookie of the Year, Alex Kravchenko, Poker Staff Person of the Year, Thomas Kremser, and The Lifetime Achievement Award winner Pascal Perrault.

Other notable winners throughout the years include Gus Hansen, Annette Obrestad, Jake Cody, Peter Eastgate, Sandra Naujoks, and Liv Boeree.

Unfortunately, with most of the players taking part in the Aussie Millions or other tournaments around the globe not all of the winners could be in attendance at the award ceremony, but upon hearing the news Player of the Year winner Sam Trickett posted the following status update on his Facebook page: “Just found out i Won European play of the Year! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Titan Poker”

Here is a look at all of the 2011 European Poker Award winners:

* Player of the Year: Sam Trickett

* Best Tournament Performance: Pius Heinz

* Rookie of the Year: Andrey Pateychuk

* Europe’s Leading Lady: Natalia Nikitina

* Staff of the Year: Warren Lush (bwin.Party)

* Internet Player of the Year: Ilari Sahamies

* Poker Personality of the Year: Bertrand Grospellier

* Event of the Year: WSOPE Cannes

* Lifetime Achievement: Jesse May

May joins a very exclusive club of Lifetime Achievement winners that includes some of the trailblazing players from Europe as well as a handful of poker industry executives and innovators. Here is a look at the past winners of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award:

* 2011: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Jesse May

* 2010: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Nic Szeremeta

* 2009: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Bruno Fitoussi

* 2008: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Marcel Luske

* 2007: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Thomas Kremser

* 2006: The Lifetime Achievement Award – John Duthie

* 2005: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Dave Colclough

* 2004: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Dave Ulliott

* 2003: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Lucy Rokach

* 2002: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Liam Flood

* 2001: The Lifetime Achievement Award – Pascal Perrault

Related posts:

1. 2011 European Poker Award nominees revealed On January 25th, 2012 the European Poker community will descend on the Aviation Club in Paris, France to hand out 10 European Poker Awards (EPA’s)...
2. Ben Lamb pulls off rare double award feat in 2011 As the final major tournaments of 2011 concluded just before the Christmas holiday Ben Lamb’s 2011 tournament credentials received yet another boost, as his historic...

Tags: Achievement Award Winner, Alex Kravchenko, Annette Obrestad, Aussie Millions, Aviation Club, Club In Paris, ElkY, Gus Hansen, Internet Player, Lifetime Achievement Award, Marcel Luske, Naujoks, Party Internet, Poker Player, Poker World, Simon Trumper, Strange Choice, Titan Poker, Tournament Performance, Trickett

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 10:51 am and is filed under UK Poker News, World Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.