TRICKET TAKES PLAYER OF YEAR

UK’s Sam Trickett was voted as the Player Of The Year in 2012 European Poker Awards (EPA) held at Aviation Club de Paris in France. This came as a surprise to many who thought that the award might be bagged by poker Triple Crown winner Jake Cody. The award ceremony honored the best players in the European poker circuit for the calendar year 2011. Both Trickett and Cody were the top contenders for Player of the year, along with Pius Heinz, Andrey Pateychuk, Eugene Katchalov and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. 2011 proved to a great season for Trickett as he won several tournaments and earned more than $ 4.5 million during the season.

Trickett won $ 100K High Roller at 2011 Aussie Millions and was ranked second in the $ 250K Super High Roller at the same event. He also won the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event held in November and these win gave him an edge over Cody. Meanwhile Grospellier bagged the Rob Gardner Memorial Poker Personality of the Year award while Heinz earned the award for the Best Tournament Performance of 2011 for his victory over Trickett, Cody, Fabrice Soulier and Benny Spindler in the World Series of Poker Championship Event.

Andrey Pateychuk bagged the Rookie of the year award. Natalya Nikitina was awarded as Europe’s Leading Lady for her winning performance at WTP Russia in 2011.

Nikitina competed with Liv Boeree, Victoria Coren, Celilia Pescaglini, Barbara Martinez and Nesrine Kourdourli for the award. Jesse May, the legendary poker announcer was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. There were no other nominees for this award. An 8 member panel chose May for this award for his capability to host poker events (including seminal poker program Late Night Poker) and writings. Among other winners were Warren Lush who was honored as Staff Person of the Year while Ilari Sahamies was awarded as Internet Player Of The Year.

Poker After Dark Season 5 Ep27 – 1/5 cardplayertube.com

Johnny Chan Movie Score: 4 / five

Poker After Dark Season 5 Ep25 – 3/5 cardplayertube.com

Johnny Chan Video Score: 5 / 5

Poker After Dark Season 5 Ep26 – 3/5 cardplayertube.com

Johnny Chan Video Rating: four / 5

Focus on: Johnny Chan

Johnny Chan is a poker player born in China, but living in the US since he was a kid. He has a total of 10 bracelets at the World Series, which includes the main events from the World Series in 1987 and 1988. He quit the university when he was just 21 years old, in order to become a gambler in Vegas.

His fame grew especially at the end of the 80’s, when he took home the title of champion at the World Series, by winning the main event two years in a row, in 1987 and in 1988. He was also runner up for the tile in 1989 but Phil Hellmuth managed to take the title instead. Johnny is the last poker player that managed to win the main events at the WSOP two years in a row. Since there are so many players taking part in the World Series these days, there is a very good chance that he will retain this record for quite a bit of time.

Johnny Chan keeps an orange on his table when he plays, which he says that he likes how it smells. Because smoking was allowed in most tournaments in the past, he used an orange to have a better smell nearby.

Johnny Chan managed to win his tenth title at the World Series in 2005, by defeating Laak Phil. These days the highest number of bracelets belongs to Phil Hellmuth, which has 11, while Chan and Doyle Brunson are tied for second place with 10 each. He became part of the Hall of Fame of Poker in 2002.

It took him quite a bit of time, but after 16 years, in 2008, Chan managed to cash in again at the World Series main event, taking home $32,166 for the 329^th place.

Two years later, he cashed in again at the World Series main event, placing on the 156^th place and taking home a prize of $57,102.

Poker After Dark Season 5 Ep26 – 2/5 cardplayertube.com

Johnny Chan Video Score: four / five