The Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske has been named 'Player of the Year' at the European Poker Awards in Helsinki, Finland. Luske, with a victory in Barcelona amongst six final table appearances in Europe, saw off strong opposition from Willie Tan, Ram Vaswani, Dave Colclough and Lucy Rokach to take the accolade.
Finland's Jani Sointula was handed the title of 'Rookie of the Year' thanks to his victory in the Monte Carlo Millions.
Swede Martin De Knijff received the award for 'Best Tournament Performance', having won a cool $2.7m in the $25,000 Bellagio WPT event.
Estonian Andres Burget won the 'Casino Staff Person' award for his development of poker in the Baltic States.
This was the fourth year of the European Poker Awards where Oscar style nominations are supplied by a 20-person panel whose identities are withheld. Sadly there are also no apparent guidelines for nominations and/or the final votes, which is a secret ballot by a named panel.
Clearly, for example, Luske's American exploits (runner-up in 7-card-stud and 10th in the WSOP main event) must have scored heavily as his domestic results were not up to the standard of his rivals. Similarly those with a host of consistent albeit non-spectacular results appear to have missed out.
Player of the Year:
Nominations:
Marcel Lüske (Holland)
Lucy Rokach (England)
David Colclough (England)
Willie Tan (England)
Ram Vaswani (England)
Winner: Marcel Lüske (Holland)
Outstanding tournament performance of the year:
Nominations:
James Vogl (England)
Surinder Sunar (England)
Martin DeKnijff (Sweden)
Angel Puras Blanco (Spain)
Theo Jorgenssen (Denmark)
Winner: Martin DeKnijff (Sweden)
Rookie of the Year: For the most promising newcomer.
Nominations:
Jani Sointula (Finland)
James Vogl (England)
Isabelle Mercier (France)
Serge Kammerer (France)
Evgeny Kafelnikov (Russia)
Winner: Jani Sointula (Finland)
Casino staff person of the year:
Nominations:
Andres Burget, Astoria-Palace Casino, Estonia (Estonia)
Thomas Kremser, IPF, Austria (Austria)
Keith Sloan, Australia (Australia)
Gerard Serra Retamero, Gran Casino Barcelona, Spain (Spain)
Edgar Stuchly and Joe Fuchshofer, Casinos Austria, Austria (Austria)
Winner: Andres Burget, Astoria-Palace Casino, Estonia (Estonia)
Lifetime achievement award:
Nominations:
Dave Ulliot (England)
Winner: Dave Ulliot (England)
Non-nominees worthy of an honourable mention:
Rookie Award:
Alex Stevic (European World Series of Poker Trial finalist, EPT Barcelona Open winner)
Noah Boeken (A tournament win in Estonia, two final tables in Amsterdam, sixth in the EPT European Poker Classic in the Vic, final table in Barcelona)
Mark Banin (Runner-up in World Heads-Up Championships, main event winner in Brighton, eleventh in the 5,000 Masterclassics).
Mattias Andersson (The only European at the final table of the World Series main event).
James Gardner-Brown (Second place in a Limit Hold'em competition at the World Series).
Outstanding Performance:
Xuyen 'Bad Girl' Pham (Winner World Poke Championship, Dublin).
John Shipley (£200,000 winner Victoria EPT).
Gus Hansen (Winner of a third WPT event).
Player of the Year:
Alexander Stevic (European World Series of Poker Trial finalist, EPT Barcelona Open winner).
Peter Roche (Winner European World Series of Poker Trial, fourth place in the Paris WPT).
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