EPT: Luca Pagano Is Player Of The Year
Seven awards were given away in the Club Opium Mare on the Eve of the EPT Barcelona. The Italian poker pro Luca Pagano was selected as the best player of the previous EPT.
The Canadian Mike McDonald secured two of the coveted trophies at once. Apart of the award as 'Best Overseas Player', he also received the 'Audience Award'. McDonald won the EPT Dortmund after taking five of his opponents out of the tournament by himself. With 18 years he was the youngest EPT winner of all time. His prize money amounted to €933,600.
Julian Thew from England was also honoured with two awards. The award for the 'Best Performance' is mainly due to his performance at the EPT Baden. At the final table, he prevailed amongst other players against Thomas Fuller, Thierry van den Berg and the German Manfred Hammer.
Furthermore, he received the 'Press Award'.
'Best
Newcomer' was Trond Eidsvig from Norway, who cashed five times in the previous season. Three times he reached the final table. Rank 5 in Barcelona was followed by rank 4 in Dublin and rank 8 in Warsaw.
The US American Danny Ryan was 'Best PokerStars Qualifier'.
Ryan is counted amongst the best online players of the world and finished tenth at the EPT Dortmund amongst others.
The most important award went to Italy. Luca Pagano cashed three times in last year's Tour. Rank 24 in Dublin, rank 27 in Copenhague and Rank 6 in the Grand Final Monte Carlo. His reward for this feat: the 'Player of the Year' award.
No awards went to the two German players Johannes
Strassmann and Jan Heitmann. However, both were in good company. Nominated as well, but no awards either: Annette Obrestad, Jason Mercier, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Glen
Chorny, Tim Vance, Isaac Baron, Raymond Rahme, Christian Harder and
Thierry Van der Berg.
| EPT Awards for Season IV |
||
| Award | Player | Country |
| Best Newcomer | Trond Eidsvig | Norway |
| Best PokerStars Qualifier | Danny Ryan | USA |
| Best Overseas Player | Mike McDonald | Canada |
| Best Performance | Julian Thew | England |
| Player of the Year | Luca Pagano | Italy |
| Audiance Award | Mike McDonald | Canada |
| Press Award | Julian Thew | England |
