2009 Bluff Manazine Reader’s Choice Awards

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

When the calendar rolls over to a new year there is always a little of the ol’ navel gazing among the poker community. Everyone seems to look back on the year trying to pigeon hole the past 12 months into some magical bit of folklore or declare it “The Year of ____”. Insert Phil Ivey, World Series of Poker, Isildur1, High Stakes Online Poker, etcetera , etcetera, ad naseum.

I pointed out a fine article by Nicole “Change100″ Gordon where she runs down the big winners and losers in the high stakes games, a very worthy year end retrospective. Now one of the fun New Year projects is about to wrap. Our friends at Bluff Magazine run a poll each year asking random question concerning what we all just went through or witnessed. You can click here to vote in the poll. Just like those egotistical baseball writers here in the states, I feel the need to share my votes with my fine reading audience of 12. Take these recommendations (after the jump) and do what you please.

Favorite Player of 2009: Phil Ivey
No offense to Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, or Elky Grospellier but this shouldn’t be close.
Top TV Poker Show for 2009: Poker After Dark
It was a coin flip between the WSOP and Poker After Dark but PAD keeps me company during my many late nights at the key board.
Favorite Las Vegas Poker Room: Venetian
It smells like nasty perfume and old people.
Favorite Poker Room Outside of Las Vegas: The Borgata
My home casino, no contest. My favorite poker room INCLUDING Las Vegas.
Top Poker Blog for 2009: Tao of Poker
Very rude making me pick between friends. Pauly wins on strength of content and heads up alcohol consumption.
Favorite Online Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
This was a toughie.
Favorite Poker Forum: PocketFives
I need to do a lot of research about online players and get a lot of help from here.
Favorite Poker Podcast: Poker Road/The Poker Beat
Scott Huff, John Caldwell, BJ Nemeth, Dan “Pokerati” Michalski, etc. Another not so easy pick.
Best Poker Twitter: Joe Sebok
He’s the king of poker tweeters with 5 trillion followers.
Best Online Poker Player: Tom “durrrr” Dwan
Since at least two of the four “nominated” had a losing year and the biggest online winner (Patrik Antonius) wasn’t an option, I went with my homer pick.
Favorite Poker Villian: Luke “__FullFlush1__” Schwartz
This is a loaded question (favorite?) but Schwartz gets the nod for being a first class (redacted).
Favorite Poker Personality: Jeffrey Pollack
This was his last WSOP as commissioner everyone benefited from his reign. Players, media, and fans.
Favorite Online Poker Resource: thepokerDB
I’ve been using it since it began when I need to research players for a story and Nat Arem did a great job with it.
Top Story of 2009: Phil Ivey Makes WSOP Main Event Final Table
This is another poll question that shouldn’t even be close.