Boeree, Schemion, and Jacobson Among Winners at European Poker Awards
Ole Schemion, Liv Boeree, Martin Jacobson, and Jack Salter captured major hardware at the 14th annual European Poker Awards, held at the Portomaso Marina Hilton Hotel in St. Julians, Malta, on March 25. The award ceremony, held concurrently with European Poker Tour Malta, saw more than 220 industry members in attendance.
A chunk of the trophies are awarded via accumulation of Global Poker Index points throughout 2014. Schemion walked away with overall Player of the Year honors, determined by a player's 13 best results during the year as scored by the GPI formula. Boeree, meanwhile, took home Female Player of the Year. Nation-specific GPI hardware winners included Dominik Panka (Poland), Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine), Dermot Blain (Ireland), Erwann Pecheux (France), Anatoly Filatov (Russia), Adrian Mateos (Spain), Mustapha Kanit (Italy), and Oliver Price (UK).
Another subset of award winners was determined through a nomination and voting process, featuring a panel of "60 to 80 of the foremost experts of the poker industry and the live tournament circuit," according to the European Poker Awards website. Each panel member nominated up to two individuals, and the top four vote getters were named as finalists, with the winners decided by an eight-person jury. Members of that jury included PokerNews' own Managing Editor Chad Holloway, as well as well-known professional players Chris Moorman, Filatov, and Juha Helppi.
Here were their choices:
- Tournament Performance of the Year: Martin Jacobson, World Series of Poker Main Event
- Breakout Player of the Year: Jack Salter
- Charitable Initiative of the Year: REG Charity
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Pierre Neuville
- Media Content of the Year: Victor Saumont, Nosebleed
- Media Person of the Year: Marc Convey
- Industry Person of the Year: Leon Tsoukernik, King's Casino
- Poker Innovation or Initiative of the Year: Unibet, launching own gaming platform
- Event of the Year Over $2,000: Battle of Malta
- Event of the Year Up to $2,000: EPT Vienna Main Event
Finally, the unique Poker's Best Ambassador is awarded through public voting based on "making a positive impact on poker while engaging its fans." German star George Danzer took the honors after a stellar year that saw him capture three bracelets en route to WSOP Player of the Year.
Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees.
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