The Global Poker Index (GPI) recently released the names of the final nominees for the 2020 Global Poker Awards.
A final voting process is currently underway for at least 18 categories, including among others, Breakout Player of the Year, Final Table Performance of the Year, Tournament Director of the Year, Industry Person of the Year, Podcast of the Year, Streamer of the Year, Vlogger of the Year and Media Content of the Year.
The nominees are selected via a new voting process which now includes a specialist panel for each category. Public votes have also been included in the tabulation of scores, with two specific categories left for the fans to decide – the Poker Personality of the Year, and Hand of the Year.
The modified selection process was introduced to ensure fairness and transparency, and to avoid controversies which hit the inaugural awards held in April of last year. But one high-profile poker personality still believes the Global Poker Awards are “rigged“.
Last week, the semi-finalists for each category were released, and one name was noticeably absent and that was Doug Polk. The three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner published more than 70 poker-related videos last year, attracting a whopping 35 million views, making him a “deserving” nominee for the Media Content of the Year: Video, and Vlogger of the Year categories.
In a tweet, Polk lamented his not being nominated for any category, despite what he called “his most successful year ever” for content. While Polk acknowledged that most of the names on the list deserve to be there, he took a swipe at the inclusion of some candidates such as Jonathan Little whose content are mainly focused on poker hand reviews.
Polk also compiled a list of YouTube viewing figures for the nominees over the past year, which showed that he has had more views than any other candidate on the list.
This is the ranking of for specifically poker viewership for 2019 YouTube
Me – 34m
Owen – 21m
Dnegs – 14m
Neeme – 8.5m
Depaulo – 4.5m
Boski – 4m
Little – 3m
Burton – 1.5m
Vibes – 1.5m
Mariano – 1.5m
Marle – 800k
Savage – 500k— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) January 21, 2020
GPI Clarifies
Polk also expected that his name would be included in the Media Content of the Year: Video category, but to his disappointment, it did not happen. Like Joey Ingram (who is among the nominees), Polk also came out with a video analysis of the Mike Postle cheating scandal, and also did a feature on Jean Robert Bellande.
To eliminate doubts, GPI President Eric Danis clarified that those who made the list created video diary style vlogs. He also emphasised that the panel actually screened a total of 40 vloggers for that category and those with the most votes became semi-finalists. The GPI has maintained that they went through a long process to come up with the current list of nominees.
The winners will be honoured during a grand ceremony which will take place on March 6 at the PokerGO Studio in Aria, Las Vegas.
