So before I begin waffling about the British Poker Awards, many of you may want to visit the website first to understand what on earth I'm talking about!
Best International Player:
After Erik Seidel's (Yes, that's the correct spelling) start to this year, I can't really see how anyone else can take down this category. Despite the majority of his cashes coming from super high roller events and invitationals, $4.5 million is still an immense sum to accumulate in the first 3 months of the year and personally I believe the fact that these were some of the most elite fields ever seen makes this accomplishment even more impressive.
Best Cash Player:
This category was hard to decide upon because I know very little about the cash game scene and to be honest, this is due to the fact that they aren't very well covered by the media, making the fact that these are "Reader's Choice Awards" quite redundant. Despite this I'm giving my vote to Sam Trickett purely based on a stories I read on the 2+2 forum about his adventures in Macau. If I recall correctly, he was also one of the few players who had begun to learn Chinese in an attempt to become friendlier with the businessmen which I think is an incredibly clever move if you're there purely to take their money.
Best Mixed Game Player:
This category irritated me somewhat. I don't mean to offend Matt Perrins because I really do think he's a great player but I don't feel he deserved a nomination for taking down the 2-7 bracelet, an event which by his own admission he doesn't really play. I may be completely wrong here and Matt is actual quite an active mixed game player, in which case I apologise, but I think he's taking up a space in the nominations which could be given to a better candidate, for example, Jon Spinks aka EMSBas. I've played various mixed game MTTs with this player and no matter what the format, he always seems to dominate. In fact he took down the UKCOOP PLO8 event I played a few months back. The winner of this category though must be Chufty, aka Richard Ashby. He's just crushed the Stud events for a while now as well as PLO online and he's not a bad NLHE player either. He should walk away with this award.
Best PLO Player:
Despite Ben Grundy's sick PLO graph, he hasn't really done enough this year in my opinion to take down this award. Therefore I'd vote for JP Kelly. I've railed quite a few of his 25/50 games on Pokerstars recently and he's been really impressive. He hasn't really tussled with Isildur1 much but he has been taking Theo Jorgensen to the cleaners recently, not an easy task.
Best Tournament Player:
How can Jake Cody not win this award. He takes down the 25k HU at the WSOP to complete his triple crown. He took down a SCOOP-H bracelet earlier this year and he's been crushing the side events from what I've heard. I don't think I can really elaborate much on this category because Cody's record speaks for itself but he's definately got my vote.
Best Social Media User:
First of all, please spell Keith right, it's not that difficult a name. Secondly, his twitter is more tilting than interesting, so strangely enough I'm not going to vote for him. I do enjoy Vicky Coren's tweets and the odd one of her Observer columns, even though the majority go over my head, but I'd give my vote to Daleroxxu. I'd love to say it's because I read his blog religiously or subscribe to his twitter feed or even know much about him. It's purely down to the fact he secretly filmed a Thai hooker soliciting. Pure video gold. If you haven't seen the video yet head over to Dale blog and I'm sure he hasn't made it too difficult to find.
Best Blogger:
Even though I told Tikay I voted for him (teehee) I actually voted for Snoopy's blog over at BlackBelt Poker. Although I don't read as many blogs as I should do, considering I enjoy blogging myself, I do read his quite often and his mix of articles, interviews and just general dry wit, make it quite enjoyable to to glaze over in between grind sessions. Another reason why Snoopy got my vote in this category may be because I actually haven't heard of the others :)
Best Online Player:
Now this category is just plain ridiculous. How many amazing online talents have been omitted from this group of nominations. Take EMSBas who's been near the top of the TLB for the past 3-4 years, or Toby "810ofclubs" Lewis who took down the Sunday $162 and the Sunday 500 on the same night! Besides that he had back to back FTs of the 1k Tuesday. Maybe Rob "Vaga Lion" Akery who's had a good few years grinding the Ultra High stakes games on both PS and FTP. The list could easily run into 3 figures. Eventually I voted for Chris Moorman who, by far and away, deserves to be nominated in this category and also the plaudits that come with what I believe will be his eventually victory.
Best Poker League:
Nuts Poker League. Only one I've played.
Best Poker Forum:
2+2. Only one I'm a member of.
Best Contribution to Poker:
For me, John Duthie has to win this category. The EPT has revolutionized live tournament poker as well televised tournament poker. It gets bigger and better every year and Duthie is still involved with every aspect of the tour. I'd go as far to say that many pros these days owe their careers to Duthie's inception through not only providing a tournament series to play, but by attracting the casual players from which the pros make their money. To be honest, if they could award this prize twice, Duthie would get my vote again.
Poker Personality of the Year:
Finally, I'm not too sure about this category. If I'm quite honest, I don't think any one person has shone personality-wise this year so even if I were asked to suggest any further nominations, I wouldn't be able to. From the options given, however, I'm giving my vote to Liv Boeree. Thanks to her Pokerstars sponsorship, she's gained a ton of television exposure, and through that has been able to show what an interesting personality she actually is. Besides, she's a hot physicist, I'd vote her for Prime Minister given the option.
So there you go. No one probably cares about my votes, but it gave me something to do while I one table my final tournament on Sunday, a pretty expensive Sunday so far. Good luck at the table y'all!
