Card Player magazine will be rolling out the red carpet on February 15th at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theatre in Los Angeles for the poker industry’s first Player of the Year Awards Gala Banquet.
Co-sponsored and produced exclusively by online gambling group Bodog.com, the awards show will feature Hollywood and poker superstars gathering for the game’s most coveted prizes.
Card Player magazine’s 2005 Player of the Year Award and a number of other awards, including Card Player’s “Lifetime Achievement Award, will be presented.
MC for the event will deep-voiced Everybody Loves Raymond funnyman Brad Garrett.
“For the first time, the poker world will get what it deserves: a first-class awards banquet to honour all the professionals who have helped grow this industry into a mainstream sport,” says Card Player Media Chairman Barry Shulman.
“Thanks to our partnership with Bodog, Hollywood will not only experience the best award show, but also get a chance to rub shoulders with the true poker superstars.”
The 2005 Player of the Year award was locked up by Men “The Master” Nguyen. Nguyen’s 16 final tables and $973,620 in earnings secured him the top seed among poker’s most lethal players.
In addition to the prestigious Player of the Year award, eight additional awards will be announced at the Awards Banquet on February 15th. Poker’s top players voted on the best cash game player, poker’s top ambassador, the best no-limit player, most entertaining player, best heads-up player, best mixed-game player, most feared player and most underrated player.
Two additional awards, favorite overall poker player and best celebrity poker player, comprise Card Player’s People’s Choice Awards. After weeks of online voting at CardPlayer.com and thousands of votes cast, Card Player has narrowed votes to a final nominee list.
Final nominees for favourite poker player include big names like Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreneau. And finalists for best celebrity player include Gabe Kaplan, Tobey McGuire and Jennifer Tilly.
With more than 18 years of service to the poker industry, Card Player Media is the publisher of Card Player, Card Player College and Card Player Europe. Combined, these magazines have a monthly circulation of over 500,000. The group also owns and operates a leading poker information portal on the Internet, CardPlayer.com. The site provides visitors with free webmail, lively information forums, a poker analyst tool that allows players to track their winnings, odds calculators, live tournament reporting, poker blogs from top poker professionals, and insightful content that ranges from basic rules of the game to advanced strategy analysis. An opt-in poker newsletter is distributed twice-monthly to more than 350,000 subscribers through the site.