British Poker Awards
Friday, 7 March 2014
What went down at the awards.
On the 3rd March, the crème de la crème of the poker world turned up at the Hippodrome Casino to celebrate this year’s British Poker Awards. Proceedings got underway in a flurry of applause and popped champagne corks, and it was finally revealed who you lovely lot had voted as your British poker heroes for 2013.
Team PokerStars once again came up trumps, with new Team Online member Alex ‘Kanu7’ Millar topping off his $2 million year by scooping awards for Best Online Cash Player and Player of the Year. Other team pros to pick up trophies included Daniel Negreanu for Best International Player and Victoria Coren for Best Social Media User, while EPT London stood proudly as Best UK Tournament, Best Tournament Director going to its front-line man, Toby Stone.
As well as Millar, other double winners to nab accolades were last year’s hero Sam Trickett (Best Live Tournament Player and Best Live Cash Player) and well-deserving Poker Mobster Barny Boatman (Lifetime Achievement and Performance of the Year). Trickett’s first speech caused quite a stir, with him hurrying through in the nick of time, having just departed a cash game down the road. “I just left a guy with £200k on the table to come to these awards,” he informed us. Ladies and gents, that’s what you call commitment to the game.
Loveable loudmouth Sam Grafton took Poker Personality of the Year to roars of approval, later making his way back on stage to accept the gong for Best Poker Training Site on behalf of Run It Once, while Chris Moorman’s recent record smashing performance was enough to net him Best Online Tournament Player. Sadly, Moorman couldn’t make it to the Awards on account of the fact he was across the pond playing the WPT LAPC, so he recorded a rather touching acceptance video to be played instead. “Four time winner? He’s not even a winning player!” bellowed Grafton in jest, to much hilarity. Unfortunately for him, his joke fell flat when three days later Moorman won the LAPC for $1,015,460. Bad luck Sam.
Last year’s Best Live Card Room winner Dusk Till Dawn triumphed once again, while Best Poker League went to Redtooth Poker. One man who truly deserved his award, though, was Sky Poker presenter Tony ‘TiKay’ Kendall, the winner of the category for Best Contribution to Growing/Promoting Poker. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a kerfuffle when this was announced, as the man himself was nowhere to be seen. It soon transpired that he had nipped out for a quick fag, only to get into conversation with Best Blogger winner and renowned chatterbox Neil Channing. “You know what Neil’s like when he gets going,” quipped Kendall, after being hurriedly chivvied onstage.
Once the trophy-collecting and proud speechifying was over, The Dukes of Mayfair took to the stage to regale the audience with some snazzy tunes, before crowds of people bounded upstairs to take part in the tournament. The glittering prize was a seat to the £250+£25 Spring Classic at the Hippodrome, with £35+£5 satellite tickets being given away as bounties for knocking out Liv Boeree, Neil Channing, Mickey Petersen, Sin Melin, Igor Kurganov or our very own Bluff writer Eve Goodman. The last man left standing was Tom Cirulis, who swiped a Spring Classic seat and shiny trophy for his victory. Congratulations Tom – we hope you take it down!
After that, festivities continued into the early hours as the who’s who of British poker partied with style. Several lethal coffee martinis and some liberal hijinks later, the last stragglers departed at 9am, and thus the awards were concluded once again. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the readers that voted – you play a vital part in keeping the UK poker scene alive, and we couldn’t have done it without you guys. Bring on next year!
A list of all the winners can be found below, while photos from the ceremony are available here.
British Poker Awards – Full List of Winners
Best Blogger – Neil Channing
Best Contribution to Growing/Promoting Poker – Tony Kendall
Best International Player – Daniel Negreanu
Best Live Card Room – Dusk Till Dawn
Best Live Cash Player – Sam Trickett
Best Live Tournament Player – Sam Trickett
Best Online Cash Player – Alex ‘Kanu7’ Millar
Best Online Tournament Player – Chris ‘Moorman1’ Moorman
Best Poker League – Redtooth Poker
Best Poker Software – PokerTracker
Best Poker Training Site – Run It Once
Best Social Media User – Victoria Coren
Best Tournament Director – Toby Stone
Best UK Tournament – EPT London
Lifetime Achievement Award – Barny Boatman
Performance of the Year – Barny Boatman
Player of the Year – Alex ‘Kanu7’ Millar
Poker Personality of the Year – Sam Grafton