European Poker Awards Preview

December 07 2007, Barry Carter

Tonight the Aviation Club in Paris are host to the European Poker Awards 2007. With at least one Brit in each category it could be a very good night for UK poker, or at the very least we should do our bit towards drinking the bar dry. The two most prolific tournament players in the UK, Julian Thew and Roland De Wolfe, are both in contention for player of the year. Praz Bansi is in line for Rookie of the Year and Jen Mason is a contender in the 'Europe's Leading Lady Award'.

Poker staff person of the year:

Nominations:

• Orla Roche (Ireland)

• Madeleine Harper (England)

• Thomas Kremser (Austria)

• Rob Yong (England)

• Tiina Korpela (Sweden)

UK Pokernews Prediction: It may be a little too late in the year, but we think Rob Yong should nick this after creating the first ever fully licensed poker club in Europe, Dusk Till Dawn.

Player of the Year:

Nominations:

• Julian Thew (England

• Alex Kravchenko (Russia)

• Carlos Mortensen (Spain)

• Andreas Krause (Germany)

• Roland de Wolfe (England)

UK Pokernews Prediction: Kravchenko had one of the most impressive World Series ever, which he followed up with a final table at the WSOPE. Thewy is the form man with back to back major titles and plenty of great results in side events. This one is too close to call but maybe Kravchenko gets it, though we hope its Julian.

Most notable tournament performance of the year:

Nominations:

• Bruno Fitoussi(France)

• Alex Kravchenko (Russia)

• Annette Obrestad (Norway)

• Carlos Mortensen (Spain)

• Ram Vaswani (England)

UK Pokernews Prediction: When Carlos Mortensen won the WPT Championship he became the first man in history to win the main event of both the WPT and WSOP, which may never be replicated. We do think, however, this one goes to the biggest name in poker right now, Annette Obrestad.

Europe's Leading Lady:

Nominations:

• Katja Thater(Germany)

• Jen Mason (England)

• Annette Obrestad (Norway)

• Isabelle Mercier (France/Canada)

• Ekaterina Rimskaya-Korsakova (Russia)

UK Pokernews Prediction: We are amazed Annette is not actually in the Player of the Year category, so for this reason we cannot see how she won't win this top honour.

Rookie of the Year:

Nominations:

• Niklaus Jedlicka( Austria)

• Annette Obrestad ( Norway)

• Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark)

• Praz Bansi (England)

• Sander Lyloff (Denmark)

• Trond Eidsvig (Norway)

UK Pokernews Prediction: It may look like a clean sweep for Annette, but this honour has to go to Kongsgaard, who has sat atop of the European Rankings for the majority of the year.

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