The European Poker Tour (EPT) has announced that Luca Pagano has been chosen the EPT Player of the Year.

The EPT also announced other awards:

The Best EPT Newcomer is Trond Eidsvig.

The Best EPT Peformance was by Julian Thew.

The Best EPT Overseas Player is Mike McDonald.

The Best EPT Poker Stars Qualifier is Danny Ryan.

The EPT award-winners were chosen by a panel of judges that included poker pro, author and former online poker room manager Lee Jones, EPT founder John Duthie, European TV star Vicky Coren and poker journalist John Caldwell.

In addition, a Poker Writers Award, voted on by European poker media, was also presented to Thew.

And a People’s Choice Award, voted on by the public, was also presented to McDonald. =A0 The biggest surprise of all the awards is the Best EPT Newcomer Award.

Eidsvig, from Norway, beat out several others including Norwegian teen sensation Annette Obrestad, who has taken the poker world by storm in showing that women and teens can compete successfully at poker.

Although she made her biggest mark by winning the Main Event of the initial World Series of Poker Europe last year in London, England, Obrestad has also been a big winner on the EPT circuit.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)