Jasen Dichev the Big Winner of the 2016 Cash Game Festival Bulgaria
The 2016 Cash Game Festival was a huge success with players from around Europe converging to Platinum Casino in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria for five days of non-stop action on and off the felts.
The biggest single pot during the festival took place on Friday night on Day 3 when local Bulgarian player Jasen Dichev won a huge pot of €3,400 on a €5/€10 televised feature table. The hand began just minutes after Dichev was caught bluffing against Estonia's Janar Kokk to temporarily give his opponent the previous biggest hand in the festival with a pot worth €2,400.
Dichev went all-in for €1,200 with 
on a 
board for a full-house. Fellow countrymate Yuliyan Kolev, holding 
for three-of-a-kind and top-kicker tanked for a minute before calling to send a huge pot to Dichev.
Meanwhile, the festival awarded two packages valued at €1,700 each to the next Cash Game Festival taking place at Aspers Casino in London from September 28 to October 3 for the highest hands in both pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold'em. Sweden's Peter La Terra, who came to Bulgaria after attending the previous Cash Game Festival in Malta, locked down the high hand Omaha jackpot with quad-jacks and will now appear at three Cash Game Festivals in a row.
The hold'em high hand jackpot was very exciting. Until the last hour before the jackpot closed, the previous best hand was a king-high straight flush. However, as time was ticking down, the poker room erupted in excitement after local Bulgarian player Nickolay J. Petrov automatically shipped a package with a royal-flush.
On the final day of the festival, Cash Game Festival co-founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk and Janar Kokk signed a contract to play in an epic heads-up match. While typically playing heads-up doesn't require any ink, this was a "go big or go to a new home" best of three match where the winner not only collects the money he shipped, but also was able to choose a country for the loser to live for an entire year. There were a few other stipulations, including players writing up throughout the match a "do not send" list and the possibility to buyout by living in a village of the winner's choice for a month or by the loser paying €5 a day to the winner as a separate bank transfer each day for a year.
In the wee hours of the morning, Von Zweigbergk pulled out the win and chose to send Kokk and his wife to Italy, who were both excited since they were thinking of moving there anyway. Kokk invited the crowd of friends railing to come visit in a few months.
The Cash Game Festival is about more than just poker. New friends were made while old friends from previous festivals bonded once again. Players with the hospitality package enjoyed welcome drinks, mini-golf, a VIP dinner, a yacht cruise, a pool party, a VIP party, and a guided city tour.
Additionally, players enjoyed unplanned activities such as beach volleyball, bars and clubs, relaxing in the sand and surf, and wide variety water sports to name a few. SlotsMillion.com sponsored player Maret Komarova may have described the event the best as a social event for poker players to meet others with the same hobby and become friends for life.
As earlier mentioned, the next Cash Game Festival is just around the corner at Aspers Casino in London from September 28 to October 3. You can register on the Cash Game Festival website to secure your seat or package as well as check out what some of the promotions the festival's partners are running.