European Poker Awards Announces Nominees

Nominees for the 2012 European Poker Awards were announced yesterday, and the list conjures memories of 2011's top poker performances and brightest stars.

Six players are nominated for the EPA's top prize, the coveted "Player of the Year" title, which will be handed out January 25 at the Aviation Club de France.  These are:

• Jake Cody: This Brit won the $25K heads-up event at last year's WSOP. Doing so granted him the rare honor of laying claim to live poker's "Triple Crown" (title wins in the sport's three biggest events - the WSOP, the WPT and The EPT).

• Bertrand Grospellier: Grospellier, aka “Elky," is a Frenchmen who had three big wins in 2011. He took home a WSOP bracelet and two high-roller titles at the EPT.
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Pius Heinz: Heinz came seemingly from nowhere to win last year's WSOP main event. He was the first German to sit at the final table.
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Eugene Katchalov: This Ukrainian star of the felt was crowned 2011 Player of the Year by Bluff Magazine. He also won last year's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

• Andrey Pateychuk: Though Pateychuk, who hails from Russia, took home both a WPT and an EPT event title in 2011, his name doesn't sound any alarms. Industry insiders believe his odds of winning are slim. 

• Sam Trickett: This British leader of Team Titan Poker won a $100K high roller event at the Aussie Millions and Partouche Poker Tour main event. Both contributed to his more than $4 million in cashes in 2011.

Other notable categories and nominees include Cody, Heinz and Trickett (along with Fabrice Soulier and Benny Spindler) for Best Tournament Performance, and Heinz and Pateychuk (along with Adrien Allain, Oleksii Kovalchuk and Sam Holden) for Rookie of the Year.