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Hael, Bonomo, and Strazynski Highlight Inaugural Global Poker Awards

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The inaugural Global Poker Awards is officially in the books. Poker’s best and brightest gathered at the PokerGo Studio at the Aria in Las Vegas on Friday to find out who would receive one of 19 different awards.

Hosting the show were Ali Nejad and Drea Renee with Renee doing interviews between award presentations. GPI head Eric Danis welcomed everyone to the event and the show went straight into award presentations.

Ho and Herring Among Surprise Winners

The show opened with the awarding of the GPI Player of the Year to Alex Foxen and the presentation of the GPI Female Player of the Year to Kristen Bicknell. The show then proceeded at a nice pace to award the rest of the trophies.

Andrew Neeme won Vlogger of the Year while The Chip Race took Podcast of the Year. Neither were in attendance to receive the award. Then Maria Ho took Broadcaster of the Year in what seemed a bit of an upset victory. She was competing against Lon McEachern, Lex Veldhuis, and Nick Schulman.

Shortly thereafter, Sarah Herring was another surprise winner for Journalist of the Year. She beat out Drew Amato, Remko Rinkema, and Christian Zetsche for the award. She joked that it seemed they came up with different categories each year to try and give her a chance to win the award.

Drew Amato was robbed again a bit later when the Media Content award went to Lance Bradley for this book The Pursuit of Poker Success. Other winners that were fairly predictable included John Cynn for Tournament Performance of the Year, the World Series of Poker Main Event for Event of the Year and Paul Campbell for Tournament Director.

Robbie Strazynski, Angelica Hael, and Drew Amato Were Feel Good Choices

While there were many categories that were debatable, there were three where it seemed that the GPA Jury got things right. CardPlayer Lifestyle founder Robbie Strazynski won the Charitable Initiative award for his work with Save a Child’s Heart. He ran 1,000 km in 2018 and raised over $10,000 for the charity. In a video from his home in Israel, Robbie showed grace and encouraged everyone to continue donating to further the great work by Save a Child’s Heart.

In another feel-good moment of the night, Angelica Hael won Industry Person of the Year. The VP of Global Tour Management for the World Poker Tour was elated to win the award and was very appreciative of the award. Anyone that knows anything about the poker industry knows of her influence and it was nice to see her get what she deserved.

Drew Amato struck out in the categories he was nominated for, but the GPA Jury decided to give him the Jury Prize in recognition of his work in the past for poker. Ironically, Amato had taken off and was at the bar and didn’t know about the award until he was told that his name was called. He came in and gave his drink to a friend before coming up to graciously accept the award.

Owen and Bonomo Have Memorable Moments

Two award recipients that had a memorable moment during the show were Brad Owen and Justin Bonomo. Owen won the People’s Choice award and when he first came up, he was giving what was supposed to be a hilariously awkward speech, but it was falling flat. However, he then took a hilarious jab at the GPA selection committee for their nominations for Vlogger of the Year, speaking publicly on something the GPI would certainly like to forget.

Justin Bonomo received the Moment of the Year award for winning the Big One for One Drop at the 2018 WSOP. During his speech, he spoke about how he was fortunate to win and that he wanted people to take away a message of compassion. He said that we as a people need to be more compassionate and not try to automatically put the fault on people for their current situation. He said himself that if the cards flipped differently, it could be someone else up there receiving the award. It was a nice message that was sorely needed during the trying time in American and poker history.

Show a Solid B+ Overall

The 2019 Global Poker Awards was a decent first showing for the combined awards show from the GPI and PokerStars. Overall, the production quality was vastly improved over the American Poker Awards and the European Poker Awards in the past.

However, there were still a few categories that were way too predictable and some categories, such as Event of the Year, that could probably be dropped. Some awards were too predicable while others were a bit unexplainable as to the winner.

For a first attempt at a global awards show, the GPA earned a solid B+ and with a few tweaks could become a fantastic event for the future.

Below is a list of the winners:

GPI Player of the Year – Alex Foxen
GPI Female Player of the Year – Kristen Bicknell
Vlogger of the Year – Andrew Neeme
Podcast of the Year – The Chip Race
Broadcaster of the Year – Maria Ho
Breakout Player of the Year – Ali Imsirovic
Journalist of the Year – Sarah Herring
Mid-Major Tour and Circuit – Run Good Poker Series
Streamer of the Year – Lex Veldhuis
Charitable Initiative – Robbie Strazynski
Tournament Director – Paul Campbell
Pocket Fives Legacy Award – Chris Moorman
Tournament Performance of the Year – John Cynn
Media Content – Lance Bradley
Event of the Year – WSOP Main Event
Industry Person of the Year – Angelica Hael
Moment of the Year – Justin Bonomo Wins Big One for One Drop
Jury Prize – Drew Amato
People’s Choice – Brad Owen

Lifetime Achievement Award – Doyle Brunson (Award given after stream went off the air)

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