GPI/THM (Global Poker Index / The Hendon Mob) has announced the complete list of 26 categories for the upcoming 2022 Global Poker Awards. The 26 awards cover the poker spectrum and include both player and industry awards, with the voting process playing out over the next several weeks. As previously announced, the 2022 Global Poker Awards ceremonies will be held on Friday, February 18 in the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, with the awards also being live-streamed on PokerGO.
Several of the player-performance GPA honors are either already known or will be as soon as the final results from all eligible 2021 poker tourneys are complete. Those include the 2021 GPI Poker Player of the Year, the 2021 GPI Female Player of the Year and a new award, the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year. This award honors performances in events with buy-ins of $2,500 or lower.
In the overall 2021 GPI race, Ali Imsirovic maintains his lead, while Nadya Magnus appears to have the 2021 Female GPI honor locked up, ending Kristen Bicknell's three-year run in that category. Houston's David Mzareulov narrowly leads the Mid-Major Category as 2021 reaches its final days.
A fourth results-based category, the PokerGO Tour 2021 Player of the Year honor, will also be presented at the ceremony. Imsirovic has already locked up that honor.
Fans to select three 2022 GPA honorees
In addition to the GPI-based honors, categories include three fan-chosen honorees: the Best Hand of 2021, a new "Best Trophy" award, and the popular "People’s Choice for Poker Personality." The fan voting will be conducted online through the GPI's online home. The exact address of the page won't be released until the fan voting opens in early January.
Once available to the public, the fan voting will take place in two parts. First, all fans may nominate any player of their choosing. Each fan gets one vote per name and IP address; all subsequent votes will be voided.
After the initial nominating phase, the top four vote-getters will be presented to the public as the finalists. A new round of public voting by fans will occur, again, one vote per fan. Round 1 votes for the finalists will carry over and all Round 2 votes will be added in. Fans can vote in either or both of the two rounds.
Expert industry panel votes selects roughly half of GPA winners
Fourteen of the 26 awards announced for 2022 will be determined by a large panel of industry veterans assembled by GPI/THM. Those award categories include the following:
- GPI Breakout Player
- Final Table Performance
- Best Event
- Twitter Personality
- Industry Person
- Tournament Director
- Streamer
- Vlogger
- Best Podcast
- Broadcaster
- Live Tournament Reporter
- Media Content: Photo
- Media Content: Video
- Media Content: Written
The voting process for the 14 categories selected by the GPA industry panel is somewhat more complex. It begins with a comprehensive list of nominees in each category being assembled by GPI/THM staff. That preliminary list is then voted upon in two stages by the industry panel, first selecting four finalists in each category (each voter actually chooses five nominees). The winner is then selected through a finalist round of voting, using a new "magic number" formula (similar to the voting process for the Oscars), which assigns weights and ranks to each voter's choices and computes the overall winner.
While the finalists will be announced some time in late January, don't look for too many "I voted for so-and-so" in the weeks ahead. The GPI has forbidden all industry-panel voters from releasing their votes, either for nominees or finalists, to the public in any way until after the February awards ceremony at the Aria.
There's a new wrinkle in the GPI Breakout Player category worth a special note. GPI/THM has clarified that the "typical" voting format won't be used. Instead, GPI will provide a list of high-ranking tournament players who never made the GPI's top 500 prior to 2021.
'Toughest Opponent' to be selected by top tourney players
Another interesting category is the "Players Choice: Toughest Opponent." The top 100 players in the GPI's global rankings, as of January 5, 2022, will be invited to vote for the toughest opponent among those same 100 players. As with the industry awards -- and notably unlike the first WSOP Main Event, according to legend -- players cannot vote for themselves. (Johnny Moss was chosen as the first WSOP champion after being selected as the second-best player on most players' ballots, who all voted themselves as the best.)
The final four awards are selected by GPI/THM itself, without any external input from players, fans, or other industry workers. Those four are as follows:
- Poker ICON (this award is bestowed upon a famous pro player who's been in the game for many years)
- GPI Award of Merit
- The Hendon Mob Achievement Award
- Charitable Initiative
One category not part of this year's ceremonies is the Best Mid-Major Tour award, which had gone to the well-received RunGood Poker Series in 2019 and 2020. The RGPS quickly Tweeted out its mock disappointment at the category not being included this time around:
GPI/THM was quick to respond:
Featured image source: GPI/THM
