American Poker Awards Honors Outstanding Performances And Contributions To Poker
The 2nd Annual American Poker Awards were presented last week at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The awards were given out in more than 15 categories across player performances, tournaments, promotions and excellence in media activities.
Some of the key winners that night included Matt Savage for Industry Person of the Year, Kara Scott for Poker Presenter Of The Year and PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Donnie Peters for Media Person of the Year. Joshua Beckley was presented with the Breakout Performance Of The Year award.
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The awards also recognised the Most Innovative Event For The Year which went to the first WSOP Online Bracelet event. The charity program organized by Matt Stout which is the Charity Series of Poker won the award of the Charitable Initiative Of The Year.
The awards also recognized some of the outstanding moments of poker that occurred over the course of the year. Anthony Zinno was awarded the Tournament Performance Of The Year for his performance at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic and Daniel Negreanu securing the 11th spot in WSOP Main Event got the award for the Moment Of The Year. A photograph by Joe Giron capturing the elimination of Daniel Negreanu in WSOP Main Event was recognized with the Media Content Of The Year award. The awards ceremony was well attended by members from the poker and gaming fraternity
The event that ended up winning the Event Of The Year with a buy-in up to $2,000 went to the WSOP Colossus event held at the Rio in Las Vegas and WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Hollywood won the award for the buy-in which was over $2,000.
Byron Kaverman and Kelly Minkin were crowned 2015 GPI Player of the Year Award and 2015 GPI Female Player of the Year respectively based on their ranking in the Global Poker Index.
In a statement Donnie Peters PokerNews Editor-in-Chief said, “Last year, I was very pleasantly surprised with the success of the American Poker Conference and the American Poker Awards. Everyone involved in the poker industry must experience the event, and I feel even stronger in that regard after the second edition. Not only is the entire event a celebration of our industry, but it’s an initiative that aims to move our industry forward and grow poker.”
The Jury Award was presented to Kevin Kevmath Mathers and the Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed on Mike Sexton. Apart from the awards ceremony, other events that were held included the inaugural Global Poker League Draft and the American Poker Conference.
