Double win for Wahlberg

Three out of four awards, including two for Wahlberg, go to Finland as Nordic Poker Awards honours players' achievements prior to European Poker Tour Copenhagen Main Event

Scandinavian poker players got the recognition they deserved on Monday night as the best players of 2009 were honoured in the Nordic Poker Stars awards ceremony. Sponsored by Poker Stars, the awards were the launch pad for the European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Copenhagen that began the following day and players from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway were in the running.

Finland's Ville Wahlbeck was in line for two awards and so wasn’t disappointed when his name was called for both Best Live Tournament Player and Best Performance of 2009. It was his WSOP performance, where he cashed six times, including four final tables and a bracelet win, that enabled him to triumph over fierce competition in the form of 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner Peter Eastgate. Other players short listed for the award included Norwegian Dag Martin Mikkelson and Swedish players Kristoffer "Sumpas" Thorsson and Erik Sasgtröm.

Best Online Performance of the Year also went to a Finnish player, this time to Full Tilt Poker's Patrik Antonius, who beat Jesper "Kipster" Hougaard of Denmark, Norway's Stephan "Stephank" Kjerstad of Norway and Thorsson to claim the prize. The award, given in recognition of his outstanding online play, was accepted on his behalf by Wahlbeck.

If the Finnish party was looking to make a clean sweep of the Nordic Poker Awards then their plans were thwarted when Thorsson scooped the prestigious honour of Rookie of the Year. “Sumpas” had achievements in 2009 that included a win in the High Roller event during the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and a victory at the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam. It was these accomplishments in both the online and live poker worlds that enabled him to stand out from the other players lined up for the award that included Denmark’s Mickey ‘Mement Mori’ Petersen, Finland’s Jens Kyllönen, and Norwegian Martin Gudvangen.

The action in the EPT Main Event began on Tuesday and saw 191 players take to the felt in the first of two Day One starts. Although final figures have not yet been released, it is estimated the total field consists of 400 players, slightly down on last year's figure of 462. The end of Day One saw Canadian Andrew Pantling finish in the lead with 155,800 chips. The rest of the pack will start on Day 1B.