The 2021 Global Poker Awards winners
PokerGO was the biggest winner of all after a year where live poker only really happened in the USA.
The biggest names in game embarked on Las Vegas over the weekend for the third annual Global Poker Awards. The 2021 awards returned after a hiatus last year for obvious reasons.
Mike Sexton, Maria Konnikova, Ben Spragg, Veronica Brill, Jamie Kerstetter, Brad Owen and Doug Polk all picked up awards, that were given out for a variety of niches including best final table performance all the way to best Twitter user, best photo, poker icon and charitable initiative.
It's hard not to spot both a USA bias in this year's winners and also a PokerGO bias. Of the 22 awards given out almost half of them are to PokerGo staff, a PokerGO streamed event or for their performance in a PokerGO event. Don't forget, however, that for most of 2021 live poker did not happen anywhere outside of the USA, so it was inevitable that these awards in particular would have a US bias and PokerGO have dominated US poker broadcasting.
We did have winners from Canada, England, France, Germany, Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Netherlands and, perhaps most notably, Masato Yokosawa of Japan winning the Personality award, which is more about the strength of the winner's fanbase.
You can see the full list of winners below:
| Position | Player |
|---|---|
| BEST FINAL TABLE PERFORMANCE | Adam Friedman (USA), WSOP 10K Dealer’s Choice 6-Max Championship |
| GPI BREAKOUT PLAYER | Johan Guilbert (France) |
| PLAYERS CHOICE FOR TOUGHEST OPPONENT | Ali Imsirovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) |
| TWITTER PERSONALITY | Jamie Kerstetter (USA) |
| BEST STREAMER | Benjamin Spragg “Spraggy” (England) |
| BEST VLOGGER | Brad Owen (USA) |
| BEST INDUSTRY PERSON | Matt Savage (USA) |
| BEST TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR | Paul Campbell (USA) |
| BEST EVENT | World Series of Poker Main Event |
| BEST PODCAST | Poker in the Ears (James Hartigan (England), Joseph Stapleton (USA) for PokerStars) |
| BEST BROADCASTER | Jeff Platt (USA) |
| BEST LIVE REPORTER | Christian Zetszche (Germany) |
| BEST MEDIA CONTENT: WRITTEN | Lance Bradley (Canada) for PocketFives: Isai Scheinberg: His Company, His Legacy, and How Black Friday Impacted Both |
| BEST MEDIA CONTENT: PHOTO | Enrique Malfavon (USA) for PokerGO: The WSOP Main Event Bubble Bursts |
| BEST MEDIA CONTENT: VIDEO | Remko Rinkema (Netherlands) for PokerGO: Run it Back with Stefanie Ungar |
| FANS CHOICE: BEST HAND | Doug Polk (USA) makes epic fold vs. Phil Hellmuth on High Stakes Poker |
| FANS CHOICE: BEST TROPHY | Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup |
| FANS CHOICE: POKER PERSONALITY | Masato Yokosawa (Japan) |
| CHARITABLE INITIATIVE | Veronica Brill (USA) |
| GPI AWARD OF MERIT | Maria Konnikova (USA) |
| POKER ICON | Mike Sexton (USA) |
| THE HENDON MOB AWARD | Kevin Mathers (USA) |
You can watch the entire ceremony below as it was streamed, for free, on the PokerGO YouTube channel:
What awards do you think is missing from this list? Let us know in the comments:
