Poker Industry Legends Celebrate Trophy Wins at 5th Annual Global Poker Awards

The 5^th annual Global Poker Awards made dreams come true and honored poker legends on a glitzy night of celebration in Las Vegas. Presented by Drea Renee and Jeff Platt, the yearly merriment and congratulation to poker players, organisers and content creators saw stars such as Bert Stevens, Kristen Foxen and Stephen Chidwick receive awards, with PokerStars LIVE and the World Series of Poker also taking home a golden GPA trophy.

Legendary Players Book Trophy Wins

On a night where the attention of poker was flipping more than ace-king and pocket queens at a final table between the EPT Paris Main Event and the awards ceremony taking place inside the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, big names were mostly the big winners. From the best final table performance to Breakout Player and Toughest Opponent, some genuine stars of the game were lauded by their peers.

There were several categories in which fans already knew the winner, with Bin Weng confirmed as the GPI Player of the Year, Kristen Foxen collecting the GPI Female Player of the Year and Nick Pupillo knowing that he’d be lifting the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year trophy. In addition to these awards, Isaac Haxton’s PokerGO Tour domination in 2023 was such that his title of PGT Player of the Year was also assured, with ‘Ike’ gaining four wins, 14 cashes, and over $7.2 million in PGT winnings on the tour.

In the open events, the GPI Breakout Player of the Year was announced as Jans Arends, whose stock rose considerably in the past 12 months, not least due to his WSOP bracelet win in the $100,000 Super High Roller event for $2.5 million, as well as over $1.3m in winnings on the Triton Poker Series (TPS) too.

Stephen Chidwick won perhaps the best award of the night for an individual player as he took the title of Players’ Choice for Toughest Opponent, an award that is unique from all the others in that it is voted for by the best 100 poker players in the world, and them alone. As such, it’s a mark of huge respect from the very best and although Chidwick wasn’t in attendance, it’s surely an honor he will put above any individual tournament trophy.

World Series Wins Best Event Prize

As much as players were battling for prizes, the stars of the felt always seem more comfortable at the felt and as such, many of poker’s operators provided some lively speeches as they collected gongs. The award for Best Event went – as it so often does – to the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Elsewhere, Francine Watson accepted the award for PokerStarsLIVE and their European Poker coverage, as Best Live Stream. This was appropriate with the EPT Paris Main Event going on thousands of miles away at the time in the French capital. While Watson would miss out on the Industry Person award – that went to the World Poker Tour’s Adam Pliska – it was fitting for Watson to be the one to accept PokerStars’ collective success, with her role in the award-winning programming so pivotal.

Just as fittingly, Best Tournament Director  went to Toby Stone, who wasn’t there to accept it, instead saying ‘Merci’ from miles away in France. The Best Stand-Alone Festival or Series went to the Wynn Millions, and the Media Award for best video content went to the coverage provided of the Doyle Brunson Celebration of Life by the evening’s hosts themselves, PokerGO. Doyle Brunson also won the ‘Poker ICON’ award.

Content Creators Captivate Audiences Again

Plenty of poker’s most creative people were honored on the night. Greg Liow, a.k.a. ‘Greg Goes All-In’ was awarded the Fans’ Choice award as best Poker Personality, while Caitlin Comeskey took the award for Best Short-Form Content Creator and Bert ‘girafganger7’ Stevens won Best Streamer.

Best X/Twitter Personality was a fiercely competed category, with Marle Spragg edging out several other talented players and personalities, including the aforementioned Comeskey. All the talk before the awards ceremony was that either Spragg or Comeskey might win three awards but on the night, each creator had to be satisfied with a single trophy each.

There was a superb result for Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin and contributors as the Unibet sponsored podcast The Chip Race won Best Podcast. There was also time for a special GPI Award of Merit award to honor the impact made by the programme of the year, Game of Gold made by GGPoker and Poker After Dark. The show’s presenter, Ali Nejad, won Best Broadcaster for his achievements not only in that legendary piece of poker TV but plenty of others on PokerGO in 2023.

You can watch all the action as it happened right here:

Here are all the winners from a glittering night of poker celebration in Las Vegas: