FINLAND DOMINATES POKERSTARS NORDIC POKER AWARDS
Finnish poker players won the bragging rights over players from other Nordic countries this year with three out four awards going to Finland at tonight’s PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards at Park Café nightclub in Copenhagen.
That the competition among poker players from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland is extremely fierce was underlined by a series of world-class nominations for this year’s Awards including Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate who was nominated for two awards. However not even Eastgate’s solid tournament results throughout the whole of 2009 was enough for him to bring home an award.
The big winner of the evening was Ville Wahlbeck who won both Best Live Tournament Player of the Year and Best Performance of the Year. Wahlbeck achieved a series of exceptionally good results during the 2009 World Series of Poker, finishing among the top 13 players in six events including winning the $10k World Championship Mixed Event. As a result, he can now also put two Nordic Poker Awards in his trophy cabinet.
The 34-year-old from Helsinki said: “It’s all a bit overwhelming actually. Doing so well in the summer was incredible and getting these awards tonight is a real bonus. The World Series was pretty hard.. two months non-stop. It was mentally very tough so I’m taking time out from poker for a bit although I will probably play EPT Berlin and EPT Monte Carlo.”
Ville also accepted an award on behalf of fellow countryman Patrik Antonius who yet again made his mark at the online tables in 2009 and, for that, was awarded Best Online Player of the Year.
One of the most remarkable players of 2009 was Swede Kristoffer ‘Sumpas’ Thorsson as he took down the High Roller event at the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker and the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam. For these achievements, he was awarded with the title of Rookie of the Year.
The PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards, which were hosted by EPT presenter Michelle Orpe, are all Finnished now for this year and the prize-claiming poker players continued celebring their evening at the Park nightclub in East Copenhagen. With this, a steaming week of poker is set off and the starting players at the 2010 EPT Copenhagen will be looking to achieve honorable results with next year’s award in mind.
The EPT Copenhagen Main Event starts Tuesday, February 16 at Casino Copenhagen.
Facts – the winners are:
Best Live Tournament Player of the Year
- Ville Wahlbeck (Finland)
Best Online Player of the Year
- Patrik Antonius (Finland)
Rookie of the Year
- Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson (Sweden)
Best Performance of the Year
- Ville Wahlbeck (Finland)
The nominees were:
Best Live Tournament Player of the Year
- Peter Eastgate (DK)
- Ville Wahlbeck (FI)
- Dag Martin Mikkelsen (NO)
- Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson (SV)
Best Online Player of the Year
- Jesper “Kipster” Hougaard (DK)
- Patrik Antonius (FI)
- Stephan ‘stephank’ Kjerstad (NO)
- Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson (SV)
Rookie of the Year
- Mickey ‘Mement_Mori’ Petersen (DK)
- Jens Kyllönen (FI)
- Martin Gudvangen (NO)
- Kristoffer “Sumpas” Thorsson (SV)
Best Performance of the Year
- Peter Eastgate (DK)
- Ville Wahlbeck (FI)
- Dag Martin Mikkelsen (NO)
- Erik Sagström (SV)
About the Nordic Poker Awards
The PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards are the annual coronation of the best poker players from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Poker enthusiasts from each country participate in open online votings and hereby elect each countries’ nominee in each of four categories after which a jury chooses the final winner of the Nordic region. The jury consists of editors from four Nordic poker magazines.
The 2010 PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards take place at the nighclub of Park on 15. February at 8 PM with a grand show. The show is streamed live on the internet and followed by poker spectators all over the world.
The award show is part of the festivities during the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour where the world’s best poker players compete for several millions in the city of Copenhagen at 16. – 21. February.
