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Global Poker Awards Step Aside for 2026 as GPI Shifts Direction
- Global Poker Awards will not be held in 2026 due to team constraints.
- Decision allows focus on expanding other products and rankings.
- Acknowledgment of hosts who elevated the event's cultural impact.
The Global Poker Awards, a ceremony that has handed out trophies from Monte Carlo to Las Vegas, is taking a year off. GPI and The Hendon Mob confirmed that the event will not take place in 2026, marking the end of an 11-year streak that helped define modern poker recognition.
Rather than a dramatic shutdown, the announcement reads more like a practical decision from a team that has simply run out of bandwidth.
Why the Awards Are Pausing
According to GPI and THM President Eric Danis, the team’s size made the annual project increasingly difficult to sustain.
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.
For a group that continues to grow other products and rankings, sacrificing that much operational time has become hard to justify. Danis also noted the improbable run the team has had, producing ceremonies everywhere from France to the Sunset Strip.
If you had told a younger me that I’d be part of a team organizing awards ceremonies… I wouldn’t have believed you.
A Nod to the Presenters Who Carried the Show
The announcement included thanks to the many hosts who brought personality and humour to the awards over the years: Kara Scott, Joe Stapleton, Ali Nejad, Maria Ho, Lynn Gilmartin, Drea Renee, and Jeff Platt.
Their contributions helped turn what could have been a straightforward industry ceremony into a recognizable cultural moment every season.
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