Global Poker Awards return Dec. 4 at WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, dropping industry trophies

A year after canceling the 2026 show, the Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob will stage a 7th Global Poker Awards on Dec. 4 at Baha Mar during WSOP Paradise. The move takes the ceremony out of Las Vegas for the first time since 2019 and cuts the program to an expected 11 player-focused trophies.

• The 7th Global Poker Awards will be held Dec. 4, 2026, at Baha Mar in the Bahamas during WSOP Paradise.
• Organizers expect to present 11 trophies, after 37 or 38 were handed out at the 6th edition, depending on whose count is used.
• Best Podcast, Best Poker Book, Best Industry Person and Best Media Content have been dropped from the 2026 list.
• Fan voting for Fans' Choice: Most Entertaining Player, which has ten nominees, closes Nov. 3.

On Oct. 29, the Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob announced that the Global Poker Awards will return for a 7th edition on Dec. 4, 2026, at Baha Mar in the Bahamas. The ceremony will run during WSOP Paradise, the World Series of Poker’s December festival. It will also be the first time since 2019 that the show has left Las Vegas. GPI’s own awards archive already lists the Baha Mar date.

The revival reverses a decision announced less than a year earlier. In a release dated Nov. 13, 2025, GPI said the awards would not be held in 2026 and named the time needed to prepare and produce the show as the main reason. Eric Danis, president of GPI and The Hendon Mob, said then that the event pulled two staff members away from day-to-day work for two months every year. At the time, the two organizations said they would keep honoring the winners of their races, including GPI Player of the Year and The Hendon Mob Award, PokerNews reported.

Eleven trophies follow the 37 or 38 handed out in 2025

The comeback edition is a narrower program. Press reports describe 11 trophies as the number expected to be presented, poker.pro noted, rather than a final figure. That compares with the 6th ceremony on Feb. 22, 2025, at the PokerGO Studio at Aria Resort & Casino, which recognized achievements from 2024. PGT’s results page counts 37 trophies from that night, while PokerNews reported 38.

Winners at that edition included David Coleman of the United States as GPI Poker Player of the Year. Adrian Mateos was voted toughest opponent by fellow players.

The categories that disappear are the ones aimed at the business around the game. Best Podcast, Best Poker Book, Best Industry Person and Best Media Content are off the 2026 list, according to PokerNews. Content creators are not shut out entirely: Best Live Streamer and Best Vlogger survive. New player categories include Best Villain, Best Table Mate and several Most Feared Player awards. Organizers said the new focus honors players whose results and achievements over the past 12 months have “left their mark on the game.”

Not every past winner is unhappy about the cuts. PokerStrategy’s Barry Carter won two content awards in 2025 that will not be given this year, yet said he supports making the show more about players.

PokerGO’s ARIA studio loses the show it hosted since 2019

The awards have moved before. They were first held in Europe in 2001, shifted to Los Angeles in 2014 and had been staged at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Las Vegas since 2019, according to PokerNews. With the Baha Mar date, that Las Vegas arrangement ends.

Broadcast plans are an open item. PokerGO carried past editions but no longer works with the WSOP, and organizers have not said whether the Baha Mar show will be televised, PokerStrategy reported. Placing the ceremony inside a WSOP festival puts it on ground tied to a series that no longer partners with its former broadcaster. No replacement outlet has been named.

WSOP Paradise runs Dec. 2 to 17 at its new Baha Mar home

The host festival is itself in its first year at the resort. On April 10, 2026, the WSOP announced that Paradise would move from Atlantis Paradise Island to Baha Mar. That announcement gave dates of Dec. 1 to 18, which the later schedule changed to Dec. 2 to 17. The awards on Dec. 4 therefore fall early in the series.

The festival arrives with momentum. The 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event beat its $60 million guarantee, drawing 2,891 entries for a $72,275,000 prize pool, PokerNews reported. The WSOP’s owner is also pushing outward. NSUS, GGPoker’s parent company, bought the WSOP in 2024 for $500 million and has been expanding the brand worldwide, according to Card Player. Attaching poker’s annual awards night to the December stop gives that expansion another fixture on the calendar.

Fans still have a say in one category. Voting for Fans’ Choice: Most Entertaining Player is open, Poker.org reported, with ten nominees that include Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Mizrachi and Alan Keating. The ballot closes Nov. 3. The trophies are scheduled to be handed out Dec. 4 at Baha Mar.