The nominees for the 2nd Annual Global Poker Index American Poker Awards were announced yesterday. The list of nominees across 11 categories was found via votes from around 80 members of the poker industry, including PokerWomenNews. A jury will determine the winners of each category, and the award ceremony will take place at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, on February 25.
Even though most of the nominees are men, it’s worth noticing that two of the categories consist of 50 percent women. In the important Breakout Performance of the Year category we find Cate Hall and Kelly Minkin alongside Joshua Beckley and Asher Conniff. Needless to say both Hall and Minkin got our votes, but it’s positive to discover that a significant part of the poker industry has chosen to nominate Minkin and Hall as well.
Even if Minkin does not win the category, she is sure to be honored with the award for 2015 GPI Female Player of the Year as she claimed the top spot of the Player of the Year Ladies list in front of Esther Taylor-Brady and Cate Hall.
The experienced TV and video presenters Kara Scott and Sarah Herring have made their way into the category Poker Presenter of the Year along with Joe Stapleton and David Tuchman. And on the list of Charitable Initiative of the Year Maria Ho and Vanessa Rousso are indirectly among the nominees as they hosted the Chad Brown Memorial Tournament.
You can find the list of all the nominees here. Be sure to check out the winners, when we return with the results late February.
Tatiana Barausova 6th in Macau Millions – Natasha Barbour Women’s Event Champion
The 2016 edition of Macau Millions attracted a huge field over three starting flights. 2,343 entries ponied up HK$3,000 to play the event, which created a massive prize pool of HK$6.1 million – with HK$811,000 (US$104,000) reserved for the winner plus a HK$100,000 (US$12,800) entry into the 2016 ACOP Main Event.
On Day 3 and down to the nine-handed final table Tatiana Barausova had a shot at the title, but a miss-timed bluff versus Guancheng Wu left the Russian pro short, and she was eliminated shortly after in 6th place for HK$185,000 (US$23,839). Quan Zhou from China wound up winning the event.
On the other side of the globe Natasha Barbour went all the way in the $600 Women’s Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The event attracted 51 runners, and Barbour defeated Sabina Hiatullah heads up for the title and the $8,340 up top. Hiatullah took home $6,040 for her runner-up finish. After the win a happy Natasha Barbour took to twitter, declaring she “broke the streak”:
China Poker Championship: Yaxi Zhu First-Ever Champion
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Aussie Millions. Macau Millions. The poker year 2016 has come off to a great start with high and low stakes tournaments all over the globe.
Today the inaugural HK$9,000 China Poker Championship played down to a winner in Macau. Only players with a Chinese passport were allowed to register, and 149 runners seized the opportunity, incl. Juicy Li (Sixiao), Wang Fei and Yaxi Zhu.
Even though Juicy Li started Day 2 as the chip Judi Online leader, she was eliminated from the event outside of the money, when all the chips went in on a flop of 6-5-2. Juicy Li, who had a pair of deuces in the hole, had flopped a set, but her opponent, Sun Ning, with 6-4 in the hand, made sure to river a straight to send the Chinese pro out of the tournament.
Unfortunately Wang Fei was eliminated before the final table as well, but with 15 players getting paid, she was able to collect HK$17,600 ($2,262) for her 13th place finish.
On Day 3 and down to the final table of eight, only Peng Miao had more chips than Yaxi Zhu, and with four players left Peng Miao was still in the lead. After the elimination of Sun Ning in 4th place and Zhang Weiyi in 3rd, Peng Miao and Yaxi Zhu were heads-up for the title. After two hours of play and a raising war where Peng Miao decided to call Yaxi Zhu’s all in with 4-2 vs. Zhu’s AK, Zhu finally emerged victorious making two pair on a board of A-7-5-2-K. Besides the trophy Yaxi Zhu takes home HK$304,400 ($39,115) for the title.
