The Camel’s Christmas Presents 2009

I suppose a mouldy mince pie 9 months past its sell by date or your Auntie buying you the same pair of socks for 7 years running might be slightly less popular, but with almost no demand whatsoever (well, except Joe asked me) the Camel’s Christmas Presents makes it’s return after a couple of years hiatus.

Dickhead of the Year

Me. Firstly for helping to drive the poor old Dean off the forums. Yes, he has a bit of a puffed up ego. But without people with this complaint there would be virtually no poker players left in the world. Is it too late to say sorry and ask him to come back? Secondly to get in wars of words with the two biggest trolls in the history of internet poker forums: Overated and fraac. I promised myself many years ago getting into internet flaming wars was just a complete waste of time and I’ve been pretty good for 3 or 4 years, but these two idiots (lucky for them I am not a HMF mod, they would have been banned ages ago) managed to get me back into my old ways. It won’t happen again.

Player of the Year

No contest. James Akenhead wins this. I played with him late last year in the Gala Tour Final at Bristol and was very impressed with all aspects of his game, especially his table image, which unusually for a young player was extremely strong. 2009 was just an annus bloody amazingus for SickDog. Final Tables at the main events of both the WSOP and the WSOPE were great, but to top off his year with victory in the Poker Million just proved he is a star who will be around for many years to come.

Star of the Year

Darvin Moon. God how refreshing it was to see a regular, self effacing guy go so deep in the WSOP. In a world full of people like Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Rousso to see a guy approaching the final table readily admitting he was the worst player there and steadfastly refusing all sponsorship deals which some players would cut off their left ball for was just great. If only he had gone all the way, we might actually have a wsop Champion worth respecting for once.

Scandal of the Year

No comments, just read this about this guy.

Funniest Line of the Year

Eddie Hearn wins this for a line about Mr Kallakis, but I can’t reproduce it here because I don’t particularly enjoy libel suits and I’m sure the Hendon Mob feel the same way. Buy me a beer or two, and I’ll weaken and tell you (as long as there are no dictaphones around).

Best looking waitresses of the Year

I stayed at the Wynn for this years WSOP and they seem to have signed up about 100 bona fide super models as their waiting staff. They win hands down.

Mystery of the Year

Five years ago I would have been desperate to know who Isildur1 was. Now I just don’t give a damn. I guess some people are mildly interested however.

Tournament of the Year

As always, the Masterclassics of Poker in Amsterdam wins this award. Adele is just wonderful. The dealers are great. There is always added money (which for some reason they don’t publicise) and there is free food and drink for all players (and it’s edible unlike many free buffets). If I played one tourny a year, this would be it.

Disappointment of the year

You won’t find me singing the praises of Ladbrokes very often, but they did the poker community proud with the money they added to the Poker Million. Full Tilt takes over "sponsorship" and the added loot disappears. Shame.

That’s yer lot.

Happy Christmas to everyone, especially Mark Strahan, Achilleas Kallakis, Phil Shaw, Nic Szeremeta, Daniel Negreanu, Overated, Fraac and The Dean.