Jonathan Raab and poker.pro Win Best Written Content at the 6th Global Poker Awards!

Poker’s biggest stars and content creators gathered for the 6th Annual Global Poker Awards (GPA) at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on February 22, 2025. Hosted by Jeff Platt and Drea Renee, the event honored the top players, media personalities, and industry figures who left a mark on the poker world in 2024.

Thanks to Jonathan Raab’s investigative work exposing online poker bot farms, poker.pro was nominated for the first time ever at the GPA, and we proudly took home the Best Written Media Content award!

Among the night’s other biggest winners, David Coleman was crowned Poker Player of the Year, while Cherish Andrews earned Female Player of the Year honors. Brad Owen, one of poker’s most recognizable personalities, secured his third GPA trophy, winning Best Vlogger for the second time after previously claiming Poker Personality of the Year in 2018. The evening was also a special one for Benjamin and Marle Spragg, as the poker power couple both won awards. “Spraggy” took home the Best Streamer award, while Marle was awarded the Best Short Form Content Creator.

poker.pro Wins GPA Award for Best Written Content in 2024

One of the most impactful stories of the year came from poker.pro’s Jonathan Raab, whose investigative work on bot farms at sites like Jack Poker shed light on one of online poker’s biggest issues.

The deep-dive investigation revealed how bot farms and RTA (Real-Time Assistance) tools were being used to exploit the game, leading to increased scrutiny from the poker community and industry leaders.

In a year filled with controversies over bots, super-users, and RTA abuse, this report played a crucial role in raising awareness and driving the conversation toward protecting the integrity of online poker. Congratulations to Jonathan Raab for his outstanding work, which has now been recognized with the prestigious Best Written Media Content award at the GPA!

• Read the article here: A Further Investigation into the Existence of the BotFarm Corporation

Marle and Spraggy: Poker’s Power Couple Take Home GPA Awards

It was a big night for the Spraggs, as both Marle and Benjamin Spragg took home awards at this year’s Global Poker Awards, marking the second win for each.

Marle was crowned Best Short-Form Content Creator, thanks to her engaging poker shorts on YouTube and TikTok. Over the past year, her YouTube channel grew by almost 5,000 subscribers, and she accumulated more than 200,000 views. Her TikTok videos went viral, and one of them got almost 200,000 views.

Meanwhile, Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, who is already recognized in the poker community as one of the biggest streamers and PokerStars ambassadors, added another trophy to his collection. He started streaming poker in 2016 on Twitch, and we saw his channel continuously grow. He reached the mark of 100,000 followers in 2020 and had an average of 1,000 live viewers on stream. Spraggy continued to put in hours and is currently sitting on 171,593 Twitch followers, but as expected, his monthly streaming hours are not as big as they were when he was starting.

In 2024, he streamed for 1,022 hours, and people watched him play poker for 1.26 million hours, proving that he remains one of the most influential figures in poker content creation

Streaming for more than seven years and receiving the second GPA award for the best streamer may be the cherry on top of Spraggy’s streaming career. Throughout his career, he streamed for 9,314 hours and was watched for 13.4 million hours.

Brad Owen Pockets Second Vlogger Award

Poker vlogger Brad Owen had another stellar year, taking home the Best Vlogger award for the second time. Even though he already had one of the biggest poker YouTube channels in the world, his channel has grown by 50,000 subscribers this year, and he has received more than 28 million views on his videos.

The two videos he uploaded that got the most views were the one where he had the best day of poker he ever had and made a vlog winning over $100,000.

The second video was the vlog showing Brad making the final table in the $50,000 WPT high roller event and getting the biggest score of his career. Brad finished the tournament in seventh place for $152,266.

Brad finished the year with a $60,530 win in the $2,200 Limit H.O.R.S.E. Championship, his first recorded live MTT win, and his first WPT title. He said this was an unexpected win, and then he waited so long to make this video for his YouTube channel.

David Coleman’s Breakout Year

David opened the year (4.Jan) with his first cash, a win in a $1,600 No Limit Hold’em—CardPlayer Poker Tour event, where he won $115,989. Seven days later, he won a $5,100 No Limit Hold’em—PGT Kickoff event for $120,150. In the first two weeks of the year, he added one fifth place, one second place, and a win for $73,800 in the $5,100 No Limit Hold’em—PGT Kickoff event.

David continued cashing in a few events before he won $15,100 No Limit Hold’em—PokerGO Cup for $302,400. After that, he left the US, cashed in EPT Paris, added cash in Triton Poker Jeju Series, and took second place in $37,000+15,000 No Limit Hold’em—Turbo Bounty Quattro for $642,900.

In the next month, he collected some minor cashes before he won $10,100 No Limit Hold’em—U.S. Poker Open for $202,300. Coleman had to wait for a few months to get another win, but this time, it was the most significant cash of his live MTT career. He won $25,000 No Limit Hold’em—WPT Alpha8 Trifecta Event for $730,300.

Coleman continued to stack cashes, some of which felt like wins since he won $440,770 for his fifth place in €5,300 No Limit Hold’em—EPT Main Event (Barcelona). As if that wasn’t enough, Coleman decided to put the stamp on the year and finished strong with sixth place in the $106,000 No Limit Hold’em—Triton Main Event for a new personal record win of $890,000.

Coleman has also won the GPI Player of the Year Award for 2024. He currently has $8,401,737 in total live earnings and is sitting in 203rd place on the All-Time Money List.

Cherish Andrews Dominating the Women’s Circuit

Cherish got her first win of the year in March when she won $2,200 No Limit Hold’em—6-Max for $182,927. One week later, she finished third in $1,100 + 500 No Limit Hold’em—Mystery Bounty for $101,650.

She continued to accumulate cashes in the upcoming months until she won a $1,600 No Limit Hold’em event in October for $119,453, a WSOPC $1,100 No Limit Hold’em event in December for $108,971, and her fourth WSOPC Ring!

She finished the year strong with one third and one sixth place in the PokerGO Cup for total winnings of $153,000. Andrews was also awarded the GPI Female Player of the Year award for 2024.

All 6th Global Poker Awards Winners