British Poker Awards Announced

The second annual British poker awards were held recently and it was no surprise that Jake Cody was a clear and deserved winner, his run over the last 18 months has been a dream come true, and any poker player would love to have even one of his amazing results in that time.  Not only was he named “Best Tournament Player” he also walked away with the prestigious “Player of the Year” award, his ‘Triple crown’ achievement helped him with the votes as he joined an elite group of players who have won an EPT, a WPT & a WSOP crown, in addition at the age of 22 he is also the youngest player ever to achieve this.  Here is a list of the players and awards:-

BEST INTERNATIONAL PLAYER: Jason Mercier
BEST TOURNAMENT PLAYER: Jake Cody
BEST CASH PLAYER: Sam Trickett
BEST MIXED GAME PLAYER: Richard Ashby
BEST POT LIMIT OMAHA (PLO) PLAYER: J P Kelly
BEST ONLINE PLAYER: Chris Moorman
BEST POKER FORUM: TwoPlusTwo.com
BEST BLOGGER: Neil Channing’s Blackbelt Poker Blog
BEST SOCIAL MEDIA USER: Vicky Coren
BEST POKER LEAGUE: Club72 Poker Friday Freezeout
POKER PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR: Kara Scott
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO POKER: John Duthie
BEST BREAKOUT PLAYER: Matt Perrins
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Roy Houghton
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jake Cody

Looking at the list of winners it highlights the fantastic opportunities there are to go and play in the UK events on offer in Jersey.  Winning a package to these really gives you the chance to play against some of the best players in Britain and from around the world.  The last two I have played at the GUKPT Blackpool and the UKIPT Manchester, players such as Jake Cody, J.P Kelly, Neil Channing were at them all, so if you do get the opportunity to go and play it is a great opportunity to improve your game and learn from the pro’s.

Matt Perrins who won the “Best Breakout Player”, reminds me of the Blackpool event I played in.  I was running reasonably well and at one stage I was 13th in chips on day1b of the event, as players got knocked out Matt Perrins joined my table, at the time we were probably a similar chip stack, but he came with a very aggressive game raising frequently with both premium and average hands.  It was against him I made the only mistake I had done the entire tournament, that one hand where you know if you had played it differently it would have changed my tournament.  Perrins had raised as he had been doing from an early position, as I was in the small blind I called with Ace, 7 suited (a hand I was not really playing up until that point as I was playing a solid tight game).  When the flop came 7, 4 2 he continuation bet the flop after I checked.  I thought I was well ahead as I had put him on something like KQ however I only called - when a ten hit the turn we both checked and the river brought another 2, I checked and he over bet the pot, after thinking about it I still thought my 7 was good and made the call only to see he had Q,10 and had a bigger two pair.  I knew after the hand I played it terribly, I should have raised his bet on the flop and found out where I was, and even then I normally wouldn’t have been involved and certainly not for the big amount I lost in that hand.  I never really recovered from that loss, I still made day 2 however was a really short stack, but after doubling up very early on Day 2 and then found myself all in with Pocket Aces against Jacks I was going to have a healthy stack, the dealer however had other ideas and cruelly put a Jack on the turn and I was out.  Although this was a bad beat I remembered the hand against Perrins more as it was the one I had played badly, hopefully this November in Blackpool I will run a little better.