Winners Revealed at 5th Annual Global Poker Awards

16 Jul 2024

Jonathan Raab 16 Jul 2024

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Winners revealed at 5th Annual Global Poker Awards
WSOP Main Event scoops Event of the Year Category
Daniel Sepiol's WPT Victory secures him Final Table Performance Award
Doyle Brunson remembered with Poker Icon Award
Unibet Poker's Chip Race wins Best Podcast for the Second Time

Photograph courtesy of Global Poker Index

We are almost two complete months into 2024, but last year has not yet been forgotten, as the 5th Annual Global Poker Awards reminded us of the highs and lows (RIP Doyle Brunson) of 2023.

At an intimate a ceremony in Las Vegas attended by many of the luminaries of the game, Jeff Platt presided over the annual bestowal of honours that recognise the achievements of those who play, organise and make content about poker, online and live.

How are the Winners Determined?

The winners are decided by a combination of closed panel voting (for some categories), public voting (for others) and GPI Leaderboard results for others. As such, the winners determined by leaderboard results were already known, but most were revealed during the live streamed award ceremony.

Each category had a short list of four or five nominees and in traditional award ceremony style, host Jeff Platt brought guests on to reveal the winners. There are no losers at the GPI Awards, each category had very long initial short lists, which were trimmed down to the final few nominees in each category by the GPI Panel.

To even get to this stage is quite an achievement for everyone nominated in every category.

Who Won?

The headline winners of the evening were Daniel Sepiol, for his WPT World Championship Final Table Performance, WPT CEO Adam Pliska for Best Industry Person and the World Series of Poker Main Event, for Best Event of the Year.

Matt Savage seemed almost surprised that his tournament had fended off strong competition from the WPT Winter Festival duo of the WPT World Championship Main Event and the WPT Prime World Championship. In accepting the award Savage, the WSOP tournament diretcor made a passionate speech saying

“It’s a testament to how popular poker is right now and the (WSOP) Main Event continues to be the undisputed world championship and the tournament of the year that everybody wants to win.”

It was the biggest ever WSOP Main Event with 10,043 entries and Effel also revealed that the sum of all the buy-ins at the 2023 WSOP fell just $300 short of $500m.

After thanking everyone who needed to be thanked, he added

“The main event continues to be the consummate competition, it’s no re-entry, it’s one bullet, it’s one chance a year and either you make it or you don’t. Since 1970 it’s the purest competition of the great game that we all love.”

Who Else Won?

While the World Poker Tour might have been quietly hoping that the WPT World Championship would scoop the best event award, little sister tour WPT Prime emerged victorious in the Mid-Major Tour category as Pliska’s award brought the tour’s trophy haul at this year’s awards up to two.

The Chip Race won Best Podcast for the second time in three years, recognising the combined talents of the Unibet Poker sponsored show’s hosts Barry Carter, David Lappin and Dara O’Kearney.

Greg "Goes All In" Liow provided enough energy to light up the Las vegas strip in his explosive and lightning quick visits to the stage, both to accept awards on behalf of absent others and for himself, for winning the final award of the night, the fans choice Personality of the Year award.

Both Greg and Caitlin Comeskey won content gongs for the second year in a row, with Caitlin upgrading last year’s Best Newcomer to this year’s Best Short Content Producer.

On the playing side of things Stephen Chidwick secured the Players Choice for Toughest Opponent for the third year in a row and is the only player to ever receive this award.

It was also a successful night for the PokerStars Live team, with EPT tournament director Toby Stone winning the TD trophy, a category he has been nominated in several times before. PokerStars Live also won Best Live Stream, which was collected by Francine Watson on behalf of the rest of the team who were unable to attend due to the EPT Paris festival being ongoing at the time.

Doyle Brunson, who passed away in 2023 was also honoured, both in a touching memorial video and as the inaugural recipient of the newly introduced Poker Icon award.

The Full List of Winners

Category	Winner
Player of the Year (POY)	Bin Weng
Female POY	Kristen Foxen
Mid-Major POY	Nick Pupillo
GPI Breakout Player	Jans Arends
Best Industry Person	Adam Pliska
Best Tournament Director	Toby Stone
Best Stand-Alone Festival/Series	Wynn Millions
Best Event	WSOP Main Event
Best Mid-Major Circuit/Tour	WPT Prime
Best Broadcaster	Ali Nejad
Charitable/Community Initiative	Nadya Magnus
Best Final Table Performance	Daniel Sepiol at WPT Championship
GPI Award of Merit	GG Poker Game of Gold
Poker Icon	Doyle Brunson
Hendon Mob Award	Casey Kastle
Best X/Twitter Personality	Marle Spragg
Best Vlogger	Jaman Burton
Players Choice Toughest Opponent	Stephen Chidwick
Best Podcast	The Chip Race
PokerGO Player of the Year	Isaac Haxton
Best Short-Form Content Creator	Caitlin Comeskey
Best Streamer	Bert “Girafganger” Stevens
Fan’s Choice – Personality	Greg ‘Greg Goes All In’ Liow
Fan’s Choice – Best Live Stream	PokerStars Live
Fan’s Choice – Best Trophy	Asian Poker Tour Taipei Lion Trophy
Fan’s Choice – Best Hand	Triton London
Best Media Content – Photo	Rachel Kay Winter “Schulman Cool”
Best Media Content – Video	PokerGO: Doyle Brunson Celebration of Life
Best Media Content – Written	The Tales of Billy Baxter: The Final Days of Stu Ungar (David Hill for WPT.com)