2011 European Poker Award nominees revealed

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Dec 31, 2011 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

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) to the biggest stars on the European poker scene. This will mark the 11th consecutive year that the European Poker Awards have been handed out, and it seems that the prestige and exposure of the awards ceremony has grown exponentially.

Here is a look at the final five nominees in each of the nine categories (the tenth category, the Lifetime Achievement Award is chosen by the judges’ panel alone) as well as PokerNewsBoy.com’s thoughts on who the winner should be:

Player of the Year

* Jake Cody (England)

* Bertrand “Elky”Grospellier (France)

* Pius Heinz (Germany)

* Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine)

* Andrey Pateychuk (Russia)

* Sam Trickett (England)

Anyone other than Sam Trickett winning this award would be an outright travesty.

Best Tournament performance

* Jake Cody (England)

* Pius Heinz (Germany)

* Fabrice Soulier (France)

* Benny Spindler (Germany)

* Sam Trickett (England)

If there is anything close to a lock in the voting it is Pius Heinz for the Best Tournament Performance in 2011.

Rookie of the year

* Adrien Allain (France)

* Pius Heinz (Germany)

* Sam Holden (England)

* Oleksii Kovalchuk (Ukraine)

* Andrey Pateychuk (Russia)

A lot of good choices in this category, but in the end Andrey Pateychuk should edge out the WSOP Champion Pius Heinz in our opinion.

Europe’s Leading Lady

* Liv Boeree (England)

* Victoria Coren (England)

* Nesrine Kourdourli (France)

* Barbara Martinez (France)

* Natalia Nikitina (Russia)

* Cecilia Pescaglini (Italy)

Coren looks to be a sound choice in this category due to her presence on the European poker scene, as well as a runner-up finish in the IFP World Championship.

Poker Staff Person of the year

* Nicolas Fraioli (Tournament Director at the Aviation Club de France, France)

* Warren Lush (International Public Relation Department Bwin Party, England)

* Edgar Stuchly (EPT President, Austria)

* Kirsty Thompson (President of the UKIPT,England)

* Simon Trumper (Dusk Till Dawn Live Poker Director, England)

With the growth of the Dusk to Dawn events, we like Trumper to win the EPA in this category.

Internet Player of the year

* Jude Ainsworth (Ireland)

* Viktor Blom (Sweden)

* Rui Cao (France)

* Chris Moorman (England)

* Ilari Sahamies (Finland)

This should be a two horse race as Sahamies had an incredible turnaround after a disastrous 2010 online campaign, and Moorman passed the $7.5 million mark in career tournament earnings.

Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the poker personality of the year

* Barny Boatman (England)

* Neil Channing (England)

* Bertrand “Elky”Grospellier (France)

* Tony Guoga (Lithuania)

* Jesse May (Denmark)

This is the year Tony G, and his hilarious blog posts get the love they deserve.

Best European Event of the year

* EPT Londres

* International Poker Open Dublin

* Finale du Partouche Poker Tour

* WPT Grand Prix de Paris

* WSOPE Cannes

This should be another lock pick, as the 2011 WSOP Europe in Cannes was an absolute success on just about every level.

Lifetime Achievement Award

To be determined by the voting panel.

Nominees courtesy of www.EuropeanPokerAwards.com

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