This shocking decision marks the end of an annual tradition that began back in 2017 and served as the poker community’s premier recognition platform outside of major tournament accolades.
GPI founder Dan Fleyshman launched the Global Poker Awards to honour contributions to the modern poker community that had grown up in the digital age — the kind of categories that regular people could aim at.
Categories included “Poker Personality of the Year,” “Best Streamer,” “Breakout Player,” and “Industry Person of the Year,” with nominations and winners determined through a combination of fan voting and expert panels.
Every year since 2017 the awards would be presented in plush surroundings at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas and broadcast globally, drawing participation from leading operators, poker media outlets, and content creators.
The 2025 ceremony was held on February 22, featuring over 35 categories and was hosted by Jeff Platt and Drea Renee. Now it looks like that will have been the finale.
The GPI cited numerous reasons for discontinuing the popular awards ceremony, but chief of all was the costs.
The world has become a more expensive place since the pandemic ended. This includes venue hire, production costs and broadcast expenses.
And although the Global Poker Awards were popular online, in-person attendance had fallen
GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu noted in an interview around the 2025 awards that conversations with event organizers revealed “nobody showed up” to the ceremony.
Some suggested that shifting consumption patterns, such as the rapid growth of short-form digital content and on-demand streaming, has devalued the traditional awards format, but surely that’s not the case for a niche as unique as poker.
Thank you for galvanizing our community with this effort over the years. It was an honor to have MC’ed the ceremony. We appreciate you so much!
— Maria Ho (@MariaHo) November 13, 2025
Eric Danis, President of the Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob Poker Database, said:
“We’re a very small team and the awards process as a whole takes two members of our team out of the day-to-day operations for two months every year.
“If you had told a younger me that I’d be part of a team organizing awards ceremonies in France, Monte Carlo, Malta, the Sunset Strip just blocks away from The Viper Room and Whisky a Go Go, and finally Las Vegas, I wouldn’t have believed you.
“We’re certainly going to miss putting on a great show, but we have other projects that have taken priority over the awards.”
The poker community has always applauded those who go the extra mile but the GPI stated that the current poker landscape has made it difficult to sustain the event at that level financially any longer.
A Loss for Poker?
The discontinuation of the Global Poker Awards represents more than the end of a gala, it signals a broader challenge facing poker’s cultural infrastructure.
The Global Poker Awards uniquely celebrated the ecosystem that sustains the game in the modern era.
Journalists, streamers, vloggers, podcasters, and operational leaders should be valued parts of the poker machine. Without a dedicated recognition platform, these roles risk being undervalued.
Reactions from around the community were predictably sombre. Poker streamer and personality Jeff Gross threw out a comment that it might be time to evolve how we celebrate the stars in the game.
Mori Eskandani, President of PokerGO, said “We’re sorry to see the GPI Awards go, as we’ve really enjoyed hosting.”
Looking ahead, the GPI has indicated it is “exploring new ways to recognise poker excellence,” leaving open the possibility of digital-first formats, integration with existing tournaments, or decentralized fan-driven initiatives.
Can a virtual awards ceremony replicate the Global Poker Awards’ prestige and unifying impact? If we’re honest that’s unlikely but maybe this is just how things are going to be in the future.
Another option would be to integrate these awards into one of the major live tournament series but no doubt there would be talk that it’s just a distraction.
For now, the poker community loses a positive institution — one that reminds the industry, year after year, that the game’s future depends not only on who wins the big events, but on who tells the stories, builds the platforms, and keeps the global audience engaged.
