The British Poker Awards will be held on 12th November, as the finest poker talent that Britain has to offer will be honored in a ceremony organized by Bluff Europe and sponsored by PokerStars.
The British Poker Awards will be held on the 12th November, according to a press release issued by Lyceum Media this week. Voting for the 2013 awards is currently underway, and you can have your say by heading to www.thebritishpokerawards.com to vote for your favorite British performances of the past 12-months.
“We wanted to find a date that didn’t clash with any major tournament so that all the players will come – after all, it’s their night and it’s nothing without them, said Bluff Europe Editor-in-Chief Michael Caselli.
Last year saw Sam Trickett cleaned house with three awards heading for his mantelpiece in the best cash game, best tournament player and player of the year categories, and he is once again nominated for an award in the Best Live Tournament Player field.
Who is going to be walking away a winner at this year’s award ceremony? I take a look at three of the categories to pick winners of my very own.
Best Live Tournament Player
Nominees
- Matthew Ashton
- Stephen Chidwick
- David Vamplew
- Toby Lewis
- Matt Perrins
- Sam Trickett
When determining the best live tournament player category you have to place the performances at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) under the greatest scrutiny.
The player who is the most consistent over the summer is generally going to be the best live tournament player of the year, and as he still holds the WSOP Player of the Year (POY) lead after his four final tables, including his incredible victory in the $50k Poker Players Championship, then Matt Ashton gets my vote hands down.
Best Online Tournament Player
Nominees
- Chris ‘Moorman1’ Moorman
- Chris ‘NigDawG’ Brammer
- Charlie “Chaz-man-chaz” Combes
- Andrew ‘stato_1’ Hulme
- Craig ‘mcc3991’ McCorkell
- Toby ‘810ofclubs’ Lewis
This boils down to two people for me. The first is Chris Moorman, who is the only winner of this award after taking it in each of the three previous years. Moorman is the greatest online tournament player the world has ever seen and has passed the $10m mark in online tournament earnings this year.
The second person that stands out of this group is Toby Lewis. Equally adept at making money playing online, live or through backing; it is his online ventures that has always been his bread and butter. Lewis has won majors in both the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) and World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) and this makes the decision a toss of a coin.
I would personally give the title to Lewis, but I think the voting public is once again going to vote for Moorman.
Poker Personality of the Year
Nominees
- Jake Cody
- Sam Grafton
- Neil Channing
- Liv Boeree
- Neil Channing
The wiki definition of a ‘personality’ is a particular combination of emotional, attitudinal and behavioral response patterns of an individual, and when I repeat that sentence the only name that flies around the birdcage inside my brain is Sam Grafton.
It’s been an important year for Grafton and he is getting picked out for interviews at major live tournaments with exceeding regularity. What I love about Grafton is he is funny, intelligent and not afraid of controversy. Professional poker players are generally hamstrung by their sponsors, or just don’t want to rock the boat, but not Grafton. He has hands on both sides of the hull and loves a little Hues Corporation.
Grafton is my choice for poker personality of the year.
The views of this article are strictly my own and the winners from all three categories will be chosen by the voting public. An announcement concerning the venue will be released early next week
