It is time to award the bests for their significant achievements and contributions to the poker industry in 2023. Keeping this in view, the Global Poker Index (GPI) and the Hendon Mob (THM) are gearing up to host their fifth Global Poker Awards to honor the best in the poker industry.
The upcoming event is set to be a gala ceremony with red carpet experiences. The festivities will once again be hosted by PokerGO. The event takes place on Saturday, February 24 and will be live-streamed on PokerGo. Here is what you can expect from the upcoming award ceremony.
2023 POY Winners Announced
As a norm every year, GPI announces the winners of the previous year’s winners of the Players of the Year (POY) titles in the first week of every January. In 2023, it was American poker pro Bin Weng who topped the overall 2023 POY race. Weng, who was also recently announced as the WPT Player of the Year winner, had an incredible year and won the overall POY title by significant margin. He started 2023 by taking down the Borgata Return Main Event and won the WSOP Circuit Las Vegas Main Event in February, which was then followed by the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Main Event, WPT Every One for One Drop for $2.2M, the Wynn Fall Classic Mystery Bounty, and the WPT World Championship High Roller. He ended 2023 by raking up an impressive $6,647,556 in live earnings.
2023 GPI Top 5 (Male Category):
- Bin Weng (USA) 5,008.99 points
- Jose “Nacho” Barbero (Argentina) 4,387.72 points
- Tony “Ren” Lin (China) 4,260.94 points
- Isaac Haxton (USA) 4,168.62 points
- Daniel Tang (Hong Kong) 4,107.14 points
In the female category, Kristen Foxen took down the overall Player of the Year race, scoring 2,970.93 points. While she posted no major win, she worked her way to the top again by notching up seven final table finishes across prominent tournaments. She did win her fourth bracelet event in 2023 but that came an online event and was not eligible to earn GPI player of the points for the poker lady.
2023 GPI Top 5 (Female Category):
- Kristen Foxen (Canada) 2,970.93 points
- Nadya Magnus (USA) 2,566.97 points
- Hui Chen “Kitty” Kuo (Taiwan) 2,402.78 points
- Victoria Livschitz (USA) 2,242.02 points
- Maria Ho (USA) 2,095.09 points
In a neck-to-neck race, Nick Pupillo (2,819.77) emerged as winner of the Mid-Major category in 2023. He overtook the lead with a mixed-games event win (his third major win of 2023) during the WPT World Championship and went on to make a few deep runs, winning the POY race by just 44 points.
2023 GPI Top 5 (Mid-Major Category):
- Nick Pupillo (USA) 2,819.77 points
- Preston McEwen (USA) 2,777.98 points
- William Kopp (USA) 2,693.59 points
- Ankit Ahuja (India) 2,652.64 points
- Blake Bohn (USA) 2,540.31 points
Award of Merit Goes To Game of Gold
The GPI Award of Merit seeks to award someone or something in poker that elevates the game. For 2023, the GPI Award of Merit goes to Game of Gold, the online poker reality show. The show featured a number of GGPoker pros and ambassadors, like Daniel Negreanu and Jason Koon, as well as some big names including Maria Ho, Fedor Holz, Daniel Cates, Josh Arieh, David Williams, and Kyna England. Representing India in the Game of Gold was Nikita Luther.
In the end, it was Maria Ho who won the coveted show and added another feather in her cap.
Many More Awards to Be Announced
More awards will be announced at the Global Poker Awards. While many will involve voting from a panel of industry representatives, most nominees have been determined from the public vote.
Poker fans will be allowed to choose several winners, including:
>>Fans’ Choice for Most Entertaining Player
>>Best Hand
>>Best Trophy
>>Best Live Stream Production
>>The top 100 players in the rankings will choose the ‘Players Choice for Toughest Opponent Award’.
Watch out for the Global Poker Awards broadcast on February 24, which will be live-streamed on PokerGo. We will recap the list of the Global Poker Award winners after the live stream.
ALSO READ:ANKIT AHUJA CLINCHES 2023 INDIA GPI PLAYER OF THE YEAR
