The annual PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards were held at the prestigious Park Cafe restaurant in Copenhagen on Monday. Finland dominated their Nordic neighbors by taking three awards out of four: Patrik Antonius was the obvious choice for Online Player of the Year, while WSOP hero Ville Wahlbeck takes home two awards, for Live Tournament Player and Best Performance of the Year. Sweden's Kristoffer "Skumpas" Thorsson became the Rookie of the Year.


Star of the show was undoubtedly Wahlbeck, who took to the stage three times; twice to collect his own awards, once standing in for his friend Patrik Antonius, who is vacationing in Mexico and was unable to attend. "My third time on the stage; I wish I was still a rookie so I could have taken all four!" Wahlbeck joked when he was picking up the trophy for the most important category, Best Performance.

Wahlbeck stunned the poker world last summer with his brilliant displays at the toughest $10,000 Championship events at the WSOP. Apart from winning the $10,000 Mixed Event, he made three more final tables, two more cashes and lost only to 3-time bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro in the WSOP Player of the Year race.

The nominees for the awards were determined by online vote in the four countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark). Finland's online vote was held at Coinflip.com's sister site, Pokerisivut.com. The final decisions were made by a four-man panel consisting of poker media representatives from the four countries.

Coinflip.com pro blogger Jens Kyllönen was Finland's nominee for Rookie of the Year and the panel recognised that the choice between Kristoffer Thorsson and Kyllönen was very close indeed.

PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards 2010:

Live Tournament Player - Ville Wahlbeck FIN
Online Player - Patrik Antonius FIN
Rookie - Kristoffer "Sumpas" Thorsson SWE
Best Performance - Ville Wahlbeck FIN