25 Jan 12
European Poker Award Winners
The European Poker Awards took place on Wednesday night, and several awards were handed out to recognize outstanding individuals in the poker community. Read on to find out who won.
The 11th annual European Poker Awards took place at the Aviation Club in Paris on Wednesday night. Nine awards were set to be handed out, and PokerStrategy.com's 
BarryCarter and 
psMike were two of the judges who voted to determine their recipients.
Without further adieu, here are the winners:
| European Poker Award Winners | ||
| Award | Winner | |
| Player of the Year | Sam Trickett | |
| Best Tournament Performance | Pius Heinz | |
| Rookie of the Year | Andrey Pateychuk | |
| Europe's Leading Lady | Natalya Nikitina | |
| Poker Staff Person of the Year | Warren Lush (bwin.Party's PR Director) | |
| Internet Player of the Year | Ilari Sahamies | |
| Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of the Year |
Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier | |
| Best European Event of the Year | WSOPE Cannes | |
| Lifetime Achievement Award | Jesse May | |
As you can see, Sam Trickett won Player of the Year, arguably the evening's top honor. Jesse May won the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to live poker coverage, and we're glad he received recognition for all of his hard work. Congratulations to all of the winners!
Our predictions on the awards turned out to be very good overall, correctly guessing 7 of the 9 winners. Are there any awards that you think should have gone to a different recipient?
