Doyle Brunson Honored, WPT and PokerStars Win Big at the 5th Annual Global Poker Awards

February 26, 2024

The PokerGO Studio was a mix of poker’s brightest stars and the industry’s biggest contributors as the Fifth Annual Global Poker Awards handed out 29 trophies on Saturday night, including big wins for the World Poker Tour and PokerStars.

Jeff Platt and Drea Renee led the ceremony, which handed out a mix of industry awards, fan’s choice winners, and special accolades — including the Poker Icon Award for the late Doyle Brunson, which was accepted by longtime friend Mori Eskandani. Joining Brunson as a special award recipient was Nadya Magnus, who was recognized for her efforts to increase the representation of women in major poker events.

The PokerGO broadcast paid tribute to the year’s best performances, with Bin Weng picking up the GPI Player of the Year and Nick Pupillo winning the Mid-Major counterpart of the season-long points race. Kristen Foxen won as well, scoring her fourth trophy for sitting atop the women’s points race. Isaac Haxton was the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year, with 14 cashes for over $7 million in a year on the PGT that included four wins.

Jans Arends won the award for GPI Breakout Player, while Casey Kastle earned The Hendon Mob Award for being the first player to pick up a cashing finish in 50 different countries on the popular database website.

Big Tours Dominate

It was a big year for the big poker tour, as World Poker Tour and PokerStars won multiple awards. The WPT picked up the Best Mid-Major Circuit/Tour honor for their Prime series and WPT President Adam Pliska beat a tough field to win Best Industry Person. The WPT was also represented in with Dan Sepiol’s award for his performance at the WPT World Championship final table.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, PokerStars’ Toby Stone, who has led explosive growth on the European Poker Tour, was voted Best Tournament Director. Likewise, the PokerStars LIVE crew picked up the trophy for the Best Stream. Neither was on hand to accept the award, however, as the EPT Paris Main Event was in full swing all weekend.

Not to be outdone, the WSOP Main Event picked up the award for Best Event, and the Best Stand-Alone Series went to Wynn Millions.

Creators Break Through in Content Awards

The Best Content and Personality categories recognized poker’s best creators from the previous year, and Marle Spragg led the way with her award for Best X/Twitter Personality. Spragg beat out a category that included Caitlin Comeskey, who was nonetheless honored as the Best Short-Form Content Creator.

Greg “Greg Goes All In” Liow won the Fan’s Choice for Poker Personality and Ali Nejad beat Platt, Nick Schulman, and Henry Kilbane to win Best Broadcaster. The Best Vlogger was Jaman Burton for his TheDrawingDeadVlog and the Best Media Content: Video award went to PokerGO’s Doyle Brunson Celebration of Life, while The Chip Race Poker Podcast won for Best Podcast.

The award for Best Written Content went to David Hill’s The Tales of Billy Baxter: The Final Days of Stu Ungar from his standout series about the gambling legend, while Rachel Winter won the Best Media Content: Photo award for her winner’s picture of Schulman from the 2023 WSOP. It was a stacked category with PokerNews stalwarts Matthew Berglund, Hayley Hochstetler, and Danny Maxwell joining Winter in the top four.

Check out a full list of the winners below:

5th Annual Global Poker Award Winners

Live Reporting Executive

Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL

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