The final ballots have been cast by our hand-picked panel of poker experts, and after a little bit of deliberation we were able to settle upon a winner in each if the 10 categories we selected this time around. Congratulations to all of the winners and the deserving nominees. Here is a look at the winners as well as all of the nominees for each award:

Female Poker Player of the Year: Winner Vanessa Selbst

In an off year for women, Selbst was one of the few women to take home a major title, winning the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event for the second straight year, as well as coming very close to becoming the first female winner on the WPT after a 3rd place finish at the 2011 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic.

Honorable Mention: Maria Ho and Annie Duke (for her contributions)

Breakout Player of the Year: Winner Chris Moorman

Moorman proved his poker skills aren’t simply limited to the online arena after finishing third in the WSOP Player of the Year race and becoming a major contender for the Card Player POY award as well.

Honorable Mention: Ben Lamb and Pius Heinz

Online Poker Player of the Year: Winner Ilari Sahamies

Sahamies rebounded from a terrible 2010 online campaign that saw him nearly quit poker to end 2011 as the biggest winner on PokerStars.

Honorable Mention: Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Jason ‘jdpc27’ Wheeler, and Gus Hansen

Tournament Player of the Year: Winner Erik Seidel

Seidel compiled over $6.5 million in winnings, 10 Top 5 finishes and 4 wins in 2011: ENOUGH SAID!

Honorable Mention: Chris Moorman, Eugene Katchalov, Jason Mercier, and Ben Lamb

Poker Player of the Year: Winner Sam Trickett

If it wasn’t for Seidel’s tournament run in 2011 Trickett would likely be getting even more credit than he is; which is a lot.

Honorable Mention: Ben Lamb, Chris Moorman, and Erik Seidel

Best Poker Moment of 2011: Winner WSOP Main Event Heads-Up Battle between Pius Heinz and Martin Staszko

The live, heads-up, battle between Heinz and Staszko will likely go down as one of the greatest television moments in poker history.

Honorable Mention: Phil Hellmuth’s three runner-up finishes at WSOP, and WSOP Player of the Year Race, and Jake Cody and ElkY win Triple Crown

Poker Story of the Year: Winner Black Friday

As noteworthy as the other stories nominated may be, this took us all of one second to decide on the winner!

Honorable Mention: Erik Seidel’s dominance and The WSOP “Live Feed”

Poker Scandal of the Year: Winner (Loser) Full Tilt Poker fails to repay players

Like the previous award, Full Tilt Poker had this dubious honor locked-up from the outset!

Honorable Mention: Jose “Girah” Macedo exposed and Chino Rheem and Mike Divita vs. the Epic Poker League

Best Poker Forum: Winner 2+2 Poker Forums

Still the biggest forum and still THE go-to place for the latest in poker gossip and rumors –many of which turn out to be true.

Honorable Mention: Pocket Fives

Best Poker Blog: Winner Subject: Poker

Although Subject: Poker has come under some fire (even by us) and only produces a scant amount of content, Noah and his crew did break more stories during Black Friday than any other outlet.

Honorable Mention: Wicked Chops Poker and Pokerati

Tags: Annie Duke, Awards Winners, Ballots, Blom, Card Player, Chris Moorman, Deliberation, Erik Seidel, Female Winner, Gus Hansen, Honorable Mention, main event, Mercier, NAPT, Online Poker, Poker Player, Poker Skills, Tournament Player, Vanessa Selbst, WPT

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 7:13 am and is filed under 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.