By Adam Ulick | August 19, 2008

This September will see the fifth season of the PokerStars powered European Poker Tour (EPT) as well as the ceremony to give out the first ever EPT awards; the inaugural ceremony will take place in Barcelona the night before the EPT Barcelona kicks off. According to a press release issued by the EPT, “There will be seven EPT award categories, including two where the voting is open to the general public and all EPT accredited media. An expert panel of judges will preside over the remaining five categories.”

This is a very exciting step in the history of the EPT as it follows in the footsteps of the WSOP and the WPT which have been giving out annual awards for some time now. The EPT will give out awards in seven categories: Best Newcomer, Best Performance, Best Overseas Player, Best PokerStars Qualifier, Player of the Year, People’s Choice Award and Poker Writers’ Award. The first five will be decided by a panel of experts led by PokerNews Editor-in-Chief John Caldwell along with EPT founder and commentator John Duthrie, former PokerStars Poker Room Manager Lee Jones and 2006 EPT London winner Victoria “Teacup” Coren.

The nominees for the first five categories are:

Best Newcomer
Trond Erik Eidsvig
Denes Kalo
Jason Mercier
Annette Obrestad
Mike McDonald

Best Performance
Jason Mercier
Julian Thew
Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier
Glen Chorny
Mike McDonald

Best Overseas Player
Tim Vance
Isaac Baron
Raymond Rahme
Danny Ryan
Mike McDonald

Best PokerStars Qualifier
Mike McDonald
Glen Chorny
Christian Harder
Isaac Baron
Danny Ryan

Player of the Year
Luca Pagano
Trond Erik Eidsvig
Johannes Straussman
Jan Heitman
Thierry Van der Berg

The last two awards - the Poker Writers Award and the People’s Choice Award – will be decided by public vote. To support your favorite EPT player (note: they must have played in EPT season 4) just visit http://www.europeanpokertour.com/awards/how_to_vote.html and fill in a short form.

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