GPI Announces American Poker Awards Nominees

The Global Poker Index (GPI) has released the list of nominees in its inaugural American Poker Awards, which were announced last year. The creation of an independent honoring mechanism for achievements within the US poker world is the latest bold initiative from the the GPI’s founder, Alexandre Dreyfus. Whether one supports the notion of such an awards presentation or not, there’s no denying that the American Poker Awards have succeeded in building at least a moderate level of industry buzz. It also remains to be seen whether the APA drowns itself in the same sort of insider-clique nominating and approving that have hampered other poker-award systems in the past, notably the WSOP-owned Poker Hall of Fame, whose voting system ensures overpopulation by the decades-old “good ol’ boy” system of poker. The APA might be different and better, though it’s certainly too soon to tell. If it succeeds, look for the GPI to launch similar awards systems in other countries and major global regions. As for the inaugural APA awards, the GPI has announced the nominees in nine of the ten categories for which awards will be presented. (The tenth category, for Poker Ambassador of the Year, is still open for public nominations.) The actual awards presentation will take place on Friday, February 27, 2015 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Global online poker leader PokerStars has signed on to sponsor the event, in addition to keeping the Stars brand in the eyes of the California poker-playing public, where state-level regulation continues to be discussed in the California legislature. The 36 nominees below were selected by a private list of what the GPI describes as “close to 60 of the brightest minds in the poker industry,” with a private GPI-selected jury eventually determining the winners. Some of the categories touch on areas of the poker world where public recognition is traditionally underspoken, while other awards — Best Performance of the Year, for example — are de riguer for such an enterprise. Your loyal BPR scribe was not one of the preliminary nominating people, nor does she have any particular preference regarding most of the awards — with the possible exception of Nolan Dalla in the Media Person of the Year category. That Dalla’s work in 2014 is no more exceptional im 2014 than it has been in any other recent years should be evidence of his true value to the poker world. He deserves the recognition. So without further ado, the APA’s nominees: NOMINEES FOR TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR