American Poker Awards & GPL Draft Held in Beverly Hills

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Tuesday, March 1st, 2016 | Written by Shane Larson

The SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills played host to the American Poker Awards last Thursday, with the venue packed with players, industry executives, and the media all there to see fifteen awards handed out across a range of different poker-related categories. The gala evening celebrating the best North American poker has to offer was presented by 888poker Ambassadors Kara Scott, with the 2nd Annual American Poker Awards hailed as an overwhelming success.

The American Poker Awards is the brainchild of Global Poker Index creator Alexandre Dreyfus, who also invented the Global Poker League scheduled to get underway later this year. During the evening, the twelve GPL team managers also drafted four players each to their respective teams.

Two Predetermined Awards

Nominees at the American Poker Awards are chosen by a panel consisting of more than 80 people, before an independent jury subsequently decided upon the eventual winners. Nevertheless, two of the awards are predetermined and are based upon Global Poker Index points amassed by players during the 2015 poker tournament season.

As a result, Kelly Minkin was named the 2015 GPI Female Player of the Year, while Byron Kaverman was presented with the GPI Player of the Year award. Last year, Minkin earned $603,680 playing live tournaments, including finishing the WSOP Main Event as the last woman standing in 29th place for a $211,821 payday. Byron Kaverman, on the other hand, racked up four tournament victories and $3,481,463 in winnings last year, including taking down the WSOP $10k No Limit Hold’em Six Handed Championship for $657,351.

Player Awards Highlights

Amongst the other awards handed out during the gala evening was one for the Tournament Performance of the Year, which went to Anthony Zinno for winning back-to-back WPT victories at the Fallsview Poker Classic, followed by the L.A. Poker Classic. The Breakout Performance of the Year was given to Josh Beckley, and the Moment of the Year went to Daniel Negreanu for his dramatic 11th place elimination from the WSOP Main Event, while Mike Sexton picked up a Lifetime Achievement award.

Female Player of the Year: Kelly Minkin
Player of the Year: Byron Kaverman
Breakout Performance : Josh Beckley
Tournament Performance: Anthony Zinno
Moment of the Year: Daniel Negreanu
Lifetime Achievement: Mike Sexton

Industry Awards Highlights

On the industry side of poker, Joe Giron won the Media Content of the Year award for his photojournalist work that included a shot of Daniel Negreanu collapsed on the floor after being being eliminating just short of a WSOP Main Event final table appearance.

Matt Stout was honored for his charitable event, the Charity Series of Poker; Kara Scott was named the Poker Presenter of the Year; while Donnie Peters, the Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews, was honored with the Media Person of the Year award. As Peters later commented:

“I couldn’t be happier to have won the award for Media Person of the Year, but I’d be lying if I told you I expected it.. the other nominees in the category — Kevin Mathers, Jason Somerville, and Joey Ingram — are all very much deserving of the award for all they provide to our industry. Just being nominated in the company of that group was enough of a blessing.”

Event (up to $2,000): The WSOP Colossus
Event (over $2,000): WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Media Person: Donnie Peters
Poker Innovation: WSOP.com Online bracelet event
Media Content: Joe Giron
Charitable Initiative: Charity Series of Poker
Poker Presenter: Kara Scott
Industry Person: Matt Savage
Jury Award: Kevin Mathers

Inaugural Global Poker League Draft

Before the awards ceremony got underway, a GPL Draft was held in which 12 team managers selected four players for their eventual five person squads. This part of the proceeding was hosted by Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Joe Stapleton, and Eric Danis, and took almost five and a half hours to complete, although it provided a great deal of excitement for those gathered, in terms of surprise selections and snubs.

Extra entertainment was provided by the panel consistently mispronouncing the players’ names, in addition to various comments made by Hellmuth and the reaction to them by Negreanu. This included a bemused Hellmuth wondering why some of the game’s golden oldies, such as Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, and Erik Seidel, had not been chosen for the draft. Commenting on the GPL draft, Donnie Peters stated:

“The draft room was buzzing with electricity, and if this is a sign of things to come for the league, then we should all be looking forward to its success. Alex Dreyfus and his team certainly set the bar high, but if you’re not ‘all in’ in this industry there will be no progression. Judging by the reaction of the community, I think it’s safe to say we’re all very much anticipating the first event.”

Breakdown of Draft

Eurasian Teams:

Rome Emperors

Mustapha Kanit
Dario Sammartino
Timothy Adams
Walter Treccarichi

London Royals

Igor Kurganov
Vanessa Selbst
Chris Moorman
Justin Bonomo

Moscow Wolverines

Dzmitry Urbanovich
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
Andrey Pateychuk
Sergey Lebedev

Berlin Bears

Brian Rast
Sorel Mizzi
Dominik Nitsche
Jeff Gross

Paris Aviators

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Davidi Kitai
George Danzer
Mike Leah