2016 Cash Game Festival London
Day 5 Completed
2016 Cash Game Festival London (Fall)
2016 Cash Game Festival London
Day: 5
The 2016 Cash Game Festival London has been a huge success. The festival matched a record for the most tables running at the same time with 28 running for a few hours during Day 3 on Friday evening.
Many different games were enjoyed through the festival including no-limit hold'em, dealer's choice pot-limit Omaha, Sviten Special, dealer's choice mixed-games and open-face Chinese poker. Additionally blind limits ranged from as low as £1/£1 all the way up to £25/£50.
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, darts competition, a world-class dinner, beer tasting, a VIP party, and a guided city tour.
Next up for the Cash Game Festival is the first ever Cash Game Festival Online taking place in iPoker from Oct. 24-30. Straight after that is the next live stop where the Cash Game Festival's history began in Tallinn, Estonia.
A bunch of people attending the Cash Game Festival London at Aspers Casino never before played poker in a casino. This was the case for Paxful Business Development and Sales Manager Matthew Manetta.
"This is my first time visiting a casino for poker, but my business partner has played a lot of poker and is a traveling poker player." Manetta said.
Manetta found that with some help he was able to learn and have a good experience. He also understood that the Cash Game Festival is as much about the people as it is about the five days of nonstop ring game action. Manetta dove straight onto a poker table with little knowledge and almost walked away a winner.
"I think it has been a really good learning experience," Manetta explained about his first time playing poker in a casino. "The people here are amazing and have helped me learn a lot. They coached me while I was playing, and all around a really great group of people at the Cash Game Festival. That's why I think it's been a nice event and I was really happy to meet all of these people. I was up early, but then at the end I was down £5 and got up."
If you are wondering what Manetta is doing at the Cash Game Festival despite not playing poker in a casino in the past, the answer is very simple. His company is now a partner of the festival and he wanted to attend to help develop contacts with the poker community, casinos, and others in the industry.
Paxful helps its customers exchange bitcoins and also helps vendors and customers process payments. Manetta explains a bit about what Paxful is.
"When the company began, it was to help people buy and sell Bitcoin. We see block-chain technology and crypto-currency are the future of banking. Now, we help out a lot of people that were unbanked to do a lot of transactions, pay bills, and do many other things. What we have been doing now is payment processing and we built a new widget that we just released to help casinos and gaming sites to accept any form of currency and payment option, which includes over 300 types, for their website or business. We can instantly get the transactions through with no chargebacks, it is cheaper than other payment options and not run by a bank. It is a peer to peer marketplace."
Manetta continued, "We are here because we wanted to become closer to the poker community. We wanted to learn what their problems are, especially in financing their gaming. We wanted to help players make payments faster. Say you are a casino and they can't travel with a bunch of cash with them we can help them transfer money from their country of origin instantly and walk out with your chips. It is a pretty simple process relying on vendors we have in each country."
Also, Manetta shared that businesses interested in implementing the simple Paxful API into their ecommerce or getting involved with Paxful for land-based solutions can visit the "Pay-With-Paxful" webpage.
Manetta is a world traveler who was originally from the mid-west United States. Due to his love of an online game, he met a good friend. His friendship developed, which i.e. day led to a journey halfway across the world to Australia which eventually led to him settling down the past few years in northern Europe.
He shared that, "I grew up in Iowa. Later, I visited Australia with plans to go on a three month holiday to spend time with a friend who I met online by playing Rainbow 6:3. By playing online over a long period of time, we became very good friends. I eventually wound up meeting a bunch of Estonians in Australia. I learned to speak Estonian from them just because there were so many and I thought the language sounded cool. I went to go visit them in their home country and wound up staying there. I now live in Helsinki and Tallinn for the past five years."
Like just about anyone that has visited or lived in northern Europe will share, Manetta is truly enjoying his experience stating that, "It is a pretty wonderful place, pretty safe, and a beautiful place to live with a lot of culture. It was something new, and because I work with tech start-ups it is a great place for me to be as everyone involved in start-ups there is very supportive. To me, when compared to other places the region's start-up community is very supportive and in general more uplifting. You help out someone and they help you. It always comes around and is a big circle of support. I fell in love with it and that's why I stayed in the north."
While Manetta hasn't played much poker before, this won't be the last time he is seen at the Cash Game Festival. He will be at the next live stop in Tallinn from Nov. 16-20 sharing that, "I will be in town for the next Cash Game Festival in Tallinn."
Kalle Fagerstrom's short stack didn't last very long and on the feature table taking his seat is online and live poker pro David Clarkson.
The last feature table with stakes at £2/£5 no-limit hold'em just kicked off. Here is a look at who is playing.
Over in seat 1 is Guts.com player Kalle Fagerstrom who bought in short for £400. He shared he didn't have much of a strategy today since he is "going in with a smaller stack" than usual.
Next to Fagerstrom is Manos Kumar from England. This is his second time on the feature table during the festival as he was also on Wednesday's £2/£5 table. He shared that, "Poker should be fun and that it is just a hobby."
UK's Liam Fitzpatrick is in seat 3 and he played on the earlier feature table during today. Next to him is Suriano Riccardo who has appeared on the feature table a few times during the festival.
Lativa's Kristaps Tisko joined the action and this is also his second rodeo this festival on the feature table. He shared he is not nervous and has no special strategy heading into the action.
London architect Chris Da Salva is in seat 5 and has one of the deeper stacks to start play with £2,000. Next to him is Romania's Vasile Cosmin Stancu in seat 7 who bought in for £1,500. Gang Wang, who appeared on yesterday's feature table, rounds out the table. He bought in for £1,200.
The last televised feature table is set to run in about half an hour with stakes at £2/£5 no-limit hold'em.
Guts.com is one of the partners of the Cash Game Festival. They are constantly sponsoring a variety players to many different festivals as the tour travels around Europe. Head of Poker Eirik Thorvaldsen has now been at three of the past four Cash Game Festivals including London about half a year ago, Malta a few months ago and this past week once again in London.
Like many players, Thorvaldsen's roots in poker began with online freerolls before moving on to recreational games with friends.
"I started playing freerolls on Full Tilt with my friends at an early age," Thorvaldsen explained. "After that we had tons of home games, and mostly played at poker clubs around Norway. Always looked at poker as a passion and thus decided to get into the industry."
While many people have a passion for poker, it is sometimes showing that special spark or being at the right place at the right time that helps players transform themselves into industry professionals. While Thorvaldsen may have joined Guts.com do to a timely introduction, one can easily see that he is a natural fit.
"I was introduced to the co-founder of Guts.com, Frode Fagerli, through the Norwegian Championship of Poker," said Thorvaldsen. "These events were held abroad and our company was one of the main sponsors. When Guts decided to introduce Poker, Guts got in touch with me and I was excited to join a fast-growing company with huge potential."
The entire crew at Guts.com appears to always love Cash Game Festivals, so it is little surprise to learn that as an organization they love live events. However, what might be a surprise is that Guts.com plans to launch its first official Guts Live Event next year.
Thorvaldsen explained that, "We love Live Events. That’s what we play poker for. We would like to introduce our own Live Event as soon as possible, and we are aiming to have our first official Guts Live Event in 2017. We want our players to enjoy playing poker at Guts, and our vision for the future is to have the best player experience possible with a great variety of live Events & online tournaments, with the best value possible."
Thorvaldsen and Guts.com appear to love the Cash Game Festival. Part of the reason is of course the nonstop poker action, however, a good part has to do with what happens off the felts.
"The Cash Game Festival is a great opportunity to meet like-minded persons who have a passion for poker," explained Thorvaldsen.
"We don’t look at these events as a grind, but a fun experience combined with activities, drinks and social happenings. I would recommend any fresh poker player to join the Cash Game Festival, to get a feel for the game, and have the possibility to talk Poker with people who play at a higher level."
Thorvaldsen shared that thus far London is his favorite stop on the Cash Game Festival tour due to everything that is just outside the casino.
"London is by far My favorite stop on the tour," shared Thorvaldsen. "The convenience of having the event at Aspers Casino, in a massive shopping mall, is just great. You can combine football, shopping, poker and a lot of other things that will keep your schedule tight while visiting."
While Thorvaldsen was seen socializing around the casino when not playing, we were curious to find out what official side events he attended and how they were from his set of eyes.
"I had limited time as I was only in London for two days, but I participated in the Beer tasting and the dinner on Friday," stated Thorvaldsen. "While I am not the biggest fan of strong beers, it still proved to be a very cool experience! The dinner was excellent as always, and we had a good time."
While in the casino, it appeared Thorvaldsen tried a bit of everything. He shared that this was the case.
"I played £1/£2 hold’em, and £1/£2 dealer's choice Omaha. I also played a few side games in the casino including blackjack, roulette, three card poker, and slots. Just a few!"
Despite being in on the action quite a bit in his short visit, Thorvaldsen shared his favorite part of the festival was "the social aspect of it." He followed this up by explaining his very social televised table explaining that he loved the £1/£2 hold’em TV table on Thursday! I enjoy playing poker, but I love to play on a TV table where everyone is having fun with each other. Best cash game I’ve played in years. Extremely fun, big shout out to Brendon Krabill, Niklas Blomqvist & Daniel Nasman for that!
While we expect to see Thorvaldsen again on the tour, he was keeping it a surprise whether or not he will be in Tallinn for the next live festival in November saying with a wink, "we’ll see" regarding whether he will be in Estonia.
The £1/£2 no-limit hold'em televised feature table just kicked off and you can watch it here on PokerNews as well as on the Cash Game Festival website and on the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel.
Mauro Suriano, who has appeared on the televised stream earlier in the festival sat in seat 1 with £850 chips. While this might seem pretty deep for a £1/£2 table, he did not by far have the most chips to start the feature table with.
British builder Paul Shircone sits in seat 2 and bought in for £240. He has never appeared on a televised table before and his plan is to simply "take it as it comes!"
Ireland's Richard Heron who describes his profession as finance sits in seat 3 with £500. He shared that he has never played on a televised table before and his goal is to "raise the nuts!"
Italy's Nicola Montalbano is in seat 4 and also bought in for £500. Similar to Heron he shared that he never played on a televised table and his plan is to "just try to play my best game."
Portugal's David Calinda is in seat 5 and shares he is a "super beginner" and bought in for £200. Next to him sits Singapore Keith Ong who also bought in for £200.
British online poker pro Liam Fitzpatrick sits in seat 7 and bought in super deep for £1,395. His plan is to "three-times over pot shove rivers and make people squirm in their seats."
Bulgaria's Nikolay Teoharov from Bulgaria is in seat 8 and describes himself as a poker drive. He played on the feature table in the Cash Game Festival when the tour was just in his home country and his plan here is to "improvise" with the £200 he bought in for.
Welcome to PokerNews' live coverage of final day of the 2016 Cash Game Festival London at Aspers Casino.
During the first four days, players enjoyed non-stop poker action along with many events organized by the festival including welcome drinks, darts competition, beer tasting, a world-class dinner and a VIP party. Today many players are on an organized city tour of London while getting ready for the final day of action.
Currently there are five tables in action with many more likely to come as the day turns into the evening.
As was the case during the every other day during the festival, the first televised feature table today will be €1/€2 at 5:30 p.m. (GMT +3) on a 20 minute delay before the table switches up to higher stakes at 8:30 p.m. What makes the feature table is unique is that not only it is for ring games, but many of the players will be taking part in a televised poker table for the first time.
Brandon Allen will once again be leading the commentary with a handful of guests popping in and out. You will be able to check out the action here on PokerNews as well as on the Cash Game Festival website and on the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be providing updates with some 2016 Cash Game Festival Bulgaria highlights of action on and off the felts throughout the day. Coverage of the poker action will begin around 5:00 p.m.