Mike Sexton Leads Nominees for American Poker Awards
The poker industry has spoken and the nominees have been revealed for the third annual American Poker Awards, presented by the Global Poker Index and PokerStars.
A selection of about 70 industry insiders spent the past week sending in nominations and the top four vote-getters were selected as finalists.
Mike Sexton leads the way with three nominations. The longtime World Poker Tour commentator and industry luminary is up for Tournament Performance of the Year, Poker Moment of the Year and Media Content of the Year. The first two are for his historic victory at WPT Montreal, while the last one is for his latest book, Life's a Gamble.
Other multiple-award nominees include Ari Engel (Breakout Performance of the Year and Tournament Performance of the Year), Maurice Hawkins (Breakout Performance of the Year and Tournament Performance of the Year) and Lance Bradley (Media Person of the Year and Media Content of the Year).
The PokerNews team picked up two nominations. Sarah Herring was named a finalist for Media Person of the Year and the PokerNews Podcast is a finalist for Podcast of the Year.
Voting for the awards will take place Feb. 23 in Beverly Hills, with winners determined by a jury of industry experts. The winners will receive their trophies at a ceremony that same night at 8 p.m. local time.
Here's a look at all of the nominees:
| Award | Nominees |
|---|---|
| Tournament Performance of the Year | Kristen Bicknell, WSOP $1,500 Bounty |
| Ari Engel, Aussie Millions Main Event | |
| Maurice Hawkins, WSOP Circuit Cherokee Main Event | |
| Mike Sexton, WPT Montreal | |
| Moment of the Year | Griffin Benger vs. William Kassouf, WSOP Main Event |
| Jason Mercier's WSOP heater | |
| David Peters wins GPI Player of the Year in final event | |
| Mike Sexton mounts comeback to win WPT Montreal | |
| Breakout Performance of the Year | Ari Engel |
| Maurice Hawkins | |
| Ankush Mandavia | |
| Sam Soverel | |
| Event of the Year | Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open |
| Super High Roller Bowl | |
| WSOP Main Event | |
| WPT Five Diamond | |
| Mid-Major Circuit of the Year | Heartland Poker Tour |
| Mid-States Poker Tour | |
| WPTDeepStacks | |
| WSOP Circuit | |
| Industry Person of the Year | Tony Burns |
| Jack Effel | |
| Sean McCormack | |
| Matt Savage | |
| Media Person of the Year | Lance Bradley |
| Sarah Herring | |
| Joe Stapleton | |
| David Tuchman | |
| Podcast of the Year | Full Contact Poker (Daniel Negreanu) |
| Poker Life Podcast (Joe Ingram) | |
| PokerNews Podcast (Sarah Herring, Matt Parvis, Donnie Peters, Remko Rinkema, Rich Ryan) | |
| TwoPlusTwo Podcast (Terrence Chan, Ross Henry, Adam Schwartz) | |
| Media Content of the Year | Bob, Charlie and a Life-Changing WSOP Main Event Journey (Lance Bradley) |
| Life's a Gamble (Mike Sexton) | |
| Stu Ungar’s Last Chance Gone Wrong (Matt Showell) | |
| Twitch coverage of Aussie Millions (Jason Somerville) | |
| Twitch Streamer of the Year | Kevin Martin |
| Jason Somerville | |
| Jaime Staples | |
| Parker Talbot |
