The European Poker Awards 2010: Our picks and why
Friday, 14 January 2011
The European Poker Awards are in their tenth annual run and the judges and nominees will assemble in Paris on February 13th to see who will be honoured in the testament to the continent's poker skill.
In total, six players and four poker personalities are up for awards with two – Liv Boeree and Jake Cody in contention for multiple honours. Liv is in the running for Europe’s Leading Lady 2010 and Tournament Player of the Year 2010 while Cody can claim not only Tournament Player of the Year but also Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year.
Let’s take a look at the awards and see who stands the biggest chance of taking home the proverbial gong. Well, it might be an actual gong. That would be an odd prize, though.
Rookie of the Year
Jake Cody
David Vamplew
Toby Lewis
Julian Herold
Fernando Brito
Bluff Europe verdict: While David Vamplew had a great breakout year, taking home not only the EPT London title after besting John Juanda heads-up and winning the UKIPT Champion of Champions STT the next day, Jake Cody’s 2010 cannot be matched. In only his third live tournament cash he took down the EPT Deauville for €857,000 before eight months later topping the field at the inaugural WPT London for £273,783. In total, he made over a million pounds in live tournaments and completed two thirds of the Triple Crown. Julian Herold’s amazing run of
consistent cashes must be noted though - check out his incredible Hendon Mob sheet
Best Tournament Performance in 2010
James Bord
Jake Cody
Fillipo Candio
Liv Boeree
Tobias Reinkemeier
David Vamplew
Bluff Europe verdict: Tobias Reinkemeier won almost a million euro when he took down the PokerStars European Poker Tour €25,000 Monte Carlo tournament and we do love Liv Boeree. Plus she took second in a £2,000 EPT London event for over £50,000 as well as her seven-figure EPT victory in San Remo. But, Jake Cody takes this one too. You can argue for James Bord, who became the fourth World Series of Poker Europe champion before taking down the WPT Marrakech High Roller. However, that tournament had just 13 entrants. Cody’s WPT and EPT titles take this one for him, too.
Player of the Year 2010
Theo Jorgensen
Jake Cody
Sam Trickett
Vladimir Schmelev
Bluff Europe verdict: The WPT Grand Prix de Paris win, a deep run to 30th place in the Main Event and two televised poker titles worth $120,000 apiece make Theo Jorgensen the most moneyed Danish player of the year. But Gus Hansen did win a bracelet. Sam Trickett made over a million dollars with consistent cashes, a WSOP runner-up spot and a PartyPoker World Open win. Jake Cody we may have mentioned… however, he won’t take all three awards. Vladimir Schmelev made four cashes at the 2010 World Series of Poker; all four were final tables. The banker took two 7th place spots in both the $10,000 Stud 8 and $10,000 Stud championships; finished 4th in the $2,500 Razz event; most impressively, though, he was runner-up to Michael Mizrachi in the $50,000 Players’ Championship. All told he took home $1.2m.
Europe’s Leading Lady 2010
Liv Boeree
Annette Obrestad
Bluff Europe verdict: Annette Obrestad won the EPT London heads-up event; Liv Boeree took second in the EPT £2,000 side event. One-nil Norway. Annette Obrestad made four WSOP cashes; Liv matched that with a WSOPE cash. Two-one Norway. However, Liv made almost three times as
much as Obrestad in 2010 thanks to her €1.2m EPT San Remo victory. Liv gets the nod.
Internet Player of the Year
Chris Moorman
Patrik Antonius
Mickey Peterson
Viktor Blom
Andreas Torbergsen
Bluff Europe verdict: Rigged. Any other year and Antonius would have taken it by a country mile. The biggest online winner of all time, though, had a torrid 2010. He was down $4m at one point but recovered to make six figures on the year. The rent is paid, but Antonius loses out. Chris “moorman1” Moorman made has made $6m lifetime from online tournaments but 2010, despite six figures in cashes, was not amazing to him. Really, it has to be Viktor Blom. While his peak was in 2009, no other player has created more intrigue and even though the mask is off and the PokerStars Pro hoodie is on, the rail has not taken their eyes off him.