On February 27, 2015 the first edition of American Poker Awards took place at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. The event, sponsored by PokerStars, is the brainchild of Global Poker Index CEO Alex Dreyfus. The event was attended by 250 guests including a who’s who of poker stars, from players to industry heavyweights, and 13 players were honored at the awards for different categories.
Among those to take home awards were Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, who was named Poker’s Best Ambassador; GPI Player of the Year Dan Colman; GPI Female Player of the Year Vanessa Selbst; and Brandon Shack-Harris, who was named Breakout Player of the Year. Head of Blogging at PokerStars, Brad Willis, won the Poker Media Content of the Year award for two articles he wrote during the 2014 World Series of Poker.
The American Poker Awards were preceded by the American Poker Conference, which included a series of panel discussions. This special award event was a key initiative for evolving poker industry and a necessary step towards growth of poker as a sport. Furthermore, Dreyfus and the GPI look forward to continue their mission to”sportify poker” in Malta later this month with the Global Poker Masters, and then onward to the European Poker Awards on March 25.
Given below is full list of those who received an American Poker Award:
- Poker’s Best Ambassador: Daniel Negreanu
- GPI Player of the Year: Dan Colman
- GPI Female Player of the Year: Vanessa Selbst
- Breakout Player of the Year: Brandon Shack-Harris
- Lifetime Achievement Award: World Poker Tour founder Steve Lipscomb
- Industry Person of the Year: WPT President Adam Pliska
- Media Person of the Year: Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove
- Tournament Performance of the Year: Mark Newhouse in WSOP Main Event
- Media Content of the Year: Brad Willis for PokerStars Blog’s “WSOP 2014: Stages / Never Stop Fighting”
- Event of the Year (buy-in over $2,000): World Series of Poker Main Event
- Event of the Year (buy-in under $2,000): WSOP Monster Stack
- Charitable Initiative of the Year: “All In” for Kids Poker Tournament Presented by CHOP & WPT Foundation
- Innovation of the Year: Twitch for Live Streaming Poker