Third Annual American Poker Awards & Conference Set For February
Mediarex Sports & Entertainment CEO Alexandre Dreyfus recently announced the American Poker Awards & Conference will be returning for its third iteration.
The third annual conference and awards banquet will take place Feb. 23, 2017, at the Sofitel in Beverly Hills, California.
The day will begin with the American Poker Conference, which runs from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The conference will be followed by a cocktail reception at 7 p.m. and a sit-down dinner and the awards ceremony hosted by Kara Scott at 8 p.m.
Award categories and nominees have yet to be released, and Dreyfus is seeking the community’s input on panel topics for the conference.
The nomination process
According to the press release, the third annual APAs will follow the same format as previous years, with an initial nomination process designed to narrow the field down to four finalists for each award.
Last year’s nomination panel consisted of 83 people from across the poker community.
- 38 members of the poker media;
- 35 members from the poker industry;
- 10 professional poker players.
Each panelist was provided with a short-list of nominees and had to make two non-weighted choices (panelists could also write in a nominee) in each category, with the top four vote-getters becoming finalists.
The winners are selected from the list of finalists by an eight or nine member jury.
Last year’s jury comprised Dreyfus, Eric Danis, Donnie Peters, Brad Willis, Craig Lumpp, Faraz Jaka, Lance Bradley, Maria Ho and Scott Ball.
The 2014 jury comprised Dreyfus, Eric Danis, Donnie Peters, John Caldwell, Jen Mastrud, Moshin Charania, Kathy Raymond and Adam Small.
[i15-table tableid=20717][i15-table tableid=19346]Winners list from the 2015 American Poker Awards
- Media Person Of The Year: Donnie Peters, Editor-In-Chief, Pokernews.com
- Tournament Performance Of The Year: Anthony Zinno, WPT L.A. Poker Classic
- Moment Of The Year: Daniel Negreanu Busts 11th In WSOP Main Event
- Breakout Performance Of The Year: Joshua Beckley
- Event Of The Year (Buy-In Up To $2,000): WSOP Colossus, Rio All-Suites Hotel And Casino, Las Vegas
- Event Of The Year (Buy-In Over $2,000): WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, Hollywood, Florida
- Industry Person Of The Year: Matt Savage, TDA Founder, WPT Executive Director
- Charitable Initiative Of The Year: Charity Series Of Poker, Matt Stout
- Poker Presenter Of The Year: Kara Scott
- Poker Innovation Or Initiative Of The Year: WSOP Online Bracelet Event
- Media Content Of The Year: Joe Giron’s Elimination Photo Of Daniel Negreanu In WSOP Main Event
- Jury Award: Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Mike Sexton
- 2015 GPI Player Of The Year: Byron Kaverman
- 2015 GPI Female Player Of The Year: Kelly Minkin
You can watch the recap of the 2015 APAs on Twitch.tv.
Winners list from the 2014 American Poker Awards
- Poker’s Best Ambassador: Daniel Negreanu
- Breakout Player Of The Year: Brandon Shack-Harris
- Industry Person Of The Year: WPT President Adam Pliska
- Media Person Of The Year: Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove
- Tournament Performance Of The Year: Mark Newhouse In WSOP Main Event
- Media Content Of The Year: Brad Willis For PokerStars Blog’s “WSOP 2014: Stages / Never Stop Fighting”
- Event Of The Year (Buy-In Over $2,000): World Series Of Poker Main Event
- Event Of The Year (Buy-In Under $2,000): WSOP Monster Stack
- Charitable Initiative Of The Year: “All In” For Kids Poker Tournament Presented By Chop & WPT Foundation
- Innovation Of The Year: Twitch For Live Streaming Poker
- Lifetime Achievement Award: World Poker Tour Founder Steve Lipscomb
- GPI Player Of The Year: Dan Colman
- GPI Female Player Of The Year: Vanessa Selbst