The 4th Annual American Poker Awards will take place at the Andaz West Hollywood in Los Angeles on Thursday, February 22, and early this week the organization released the official list of nominees.
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Doug Polk receives most individual nominations: Video Blogger of the Year, Tournament Performance for his One Drop High Roller victory, Biggest Influencer in Poker. (Image: GPI)
A 102-member nomination panel selected 54 finalists in a dozen events, and the Poker Central team came up big.
Darling of the APA
Poker Central, the brainchild of businessman-turned-poker-aficionado Cary Katz, earned eight nominations including one for the founder, who is up for “Poker’s Biggest Influencer” against Daniel Negreanu, Matt Savage, and Doug Polk.
Poker Central is also up for “Moment of the Year” for Tm Dwan making his return to PokerGo’s Poker After Dark reboot. Other nominees include 70-year-old John Smith making back-to-back WSOP $10K Heads-Up finals, Ema Zajmovic becoming first female to win a WPT, and the famous Vanessa Selbst vs. Gaelle Baumann hand from the WSOP Main Event.
In conjunction with Aria, Poker Central’s Super High Roller Bowl is up for “Event of the Year” against the partypoker MILLIONS North America, Poker Masters Event #1, and WSOP Main Event.
In the “Broadcaster of the Year” category, both Poker Central’s Nick Schulman and Ali Nejad are finalist against Joe Stapleton and Lon McEachern.
Poker Central is also up for awards in the “Media Content” for their Dead Money: A Super High Roller Bowl Story documentary and for “Podcast” with the Poker Central Podcast hosted by Brent Hanks, Will O’Connor, and Remko Rinkema.
Rest of the Field
The aforementioned Doug Polk is up for two other individual American Poker Awards. In the “Tournament Performance” category Polk, who is nominated for his WSOP One Drop High Roller win, squares off against Scott Blumstein (WSOP Main Event), Darren Elias (WPT Fallsview), and Bryn Kenney (PSC Monte Carlo SHR).
Polk is also up for “Video Blogger of the Year,” though he faces some stiff competition from Daniel Negreanu, Joe Ingram, and who some consider the odds-on favorite to win, Andrew Neeme.
In the battle for “Mid-Major Circuit,” mid-tier tours Mid-States Poker Tour, RunGood Poker Series, WPTDeepStacks, and the WSOP Circuit are all nominees.
“Season 8 of the MSPT set many records across the country, including for largest tournament in both our tour and The Venetian history,” MSPT President Bryan Mileski told PokerSites.com. “We’re honored to be recognized by the nomination panel, and fingers crossed, we’ll take home our first American Poker Award.”
Here’s a look at others up for American Poker Awards following a successful year in 2017:
- Breakout Player of the Year: Dejuante “DJ” Alexander, Mike Del Vecchio, Alex Foxen, Artur Papazyan
- Journalist of the Year: Drew Amato, Lance Bradley, BJ Nemeth, Steve Ruddock, Jessica Welman
- Poker Streamer: Jeff Gross, Bill Perkins, Jason Somerville, Jaime Staples, Parker Talbot
- Industry Person: Tony Burns, Sean McCormack, Adam Pliska, Matt Savage
Other American Poker Awards that’ll be presented at this year’s gathering include Lifetime Achievement in Poker, Charitable Initiative, Jury Prize, and PocketFives Legacy Award. In addition, Public voting is still open for the People’s Choice Award for Poker Personality of the Year.
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