The first ever Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour Awards have been announced. They plan to honor the most exceptional people and performances from season 4. There will be 7 different categories of which 2 open voting categories, 1 will be voted on by the public and 1 by accredited EPT Media. The other five categories will be voted on by a panel of four poker experts John Duthie, Victoria Coren, Lee Jones and John Caldwell.

The nominees will be announced over the next month and the winners announced at the first ever awards ceremony at Barcelona’s Opium Mar on September 9th 2008. This event will be held on the eve of the Barcelona Open which will kick off Season 5 of the EPT.

The five open categories are Best Newcomer, Best Performance, Best Overseas Player, Best Pokerstars.com Qualifier, and Player of the Year. The nominees in those categories are:

Best Newcomer:
Trond Erik Eidsvig
Denes Kalo
Jason Mercier
Annette Obrestad
Mike McDonald

Best Performance:
Jason Mercier
Julian Thew
Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier
Glen Chorny
Mike McDonald

Best Overseas Player:
Tim Vance
Isaac Baron
Raymond Rahme
Danny Ryan
Mike McDonald

Best Pokerstars.com Qualifier:
Mike McDonald
Glen Chorny
Christian Harder
Isaac Baron
Danny Ryan

Player of the Year:
Luca Pagano
Trond Erik Eidsvig
Johannes Straussman
Jan Heitman
Thierry Van der Berg

Good luck to all the entrants and don’t forget to vote on the Peoples Choice category at europeanpokertour.com/awards.