Welcome to Day 4 of the 2016 Cash Game Festival at Aspers Casino Westfield. Each day during the festival we have seen more and more excitement. Yesterday set a new record for the most action at a Cash Game Festival event with 28 tables running in a variety of games including no-limit hold'em, dealer's choice pot-limit Omaha, pineapple open-face Chinese poker, dealer's choice mixed-games, and Sviten Special.
Stakes also ranged vastly with many players enjoying lower stakes games starting at £1/£1. However, there was a huge £25/£50 no-limit hold'em game running which included a huge pot of over £20,000 and a £10/£25 pot-limit Omaha featuring many big names including 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Felix Stephensen.
Today's action is expected to be just as big if not bigger than yesterday. Already early on in the day there are five tables running mostly at lower-stakes. The marathon heads-up £5 a point pineapple open-face Chinese poker match has been running since before 11 a.m. after both players broke the game late last night.
Stay tuned at PokerNews as our Live Reporting Team will be on hand to share highlights throughout the day.
If you want to check out a stream of some of the exciting action taking place at the Cash Game Festival London in Aspers Casino, you will have your chance starting at 4:30 p.m. BST when a £1/£1 no-limit hold'em game will kick things off on the feature table. Stakes on the feature table will increase throughout the day.
Marketing and Gaming Consultant Warren Lush has been on hand each of the days during the 2016 Cash Game Festival London at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City. Lush shared his thoughts on why he feels the festival is not only great for players, but operators as well.
"When I was first approached about the Cash Game Festival by John (Scanlon) and "Franke" (Martin von Zweigbergk) I thought it was a very good idea, but also a very simple one," began Lush.
Lush added, "Where I think it is very good for the operator, is compared to a festival of tournaments, an operator makes more money off cash games. So, it makes business sense. In other words, I believe the idea behind the Cash Game Festival is excellent."
Jaxon
Cash Game Festival London Day 4 Feature Table
The feature table just began streaming on the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel with a £1/£1 no-limit hold'em game.
Here is a look at who is competing on the live stream:
United Kingdom's Shah Raza describes himself as a semi-professional poker player and shared that it is his first time on a televised table.
Duncan Higgins also makes his first-ever appearance on a live stream. Higgins has been playing online since 2007 and has moved to focusing mostly on live cash games for the past two years.
Hoa “H” Quan has been playing poker more than most on the feature table. His 15 years experience on the felts includes an extended time on the now-closed iconic Gutshot poker room.
While Philip Thomas James shares he is not a professional poker player, it doesn't mean he takes his hobby any less seriously. For each of the past 16 years, he has visited the gaming capital of the world Las Vegas to get in on some action. James has also had success online, once taking fourth place in the PokerStars Sunday Storm. For those of you not familiar with this tournament, it usually attracts more than 30,000 players.
There aren't a ton of Americans at the Cash Game Festival London, however, Texas' Brendon Krabill is here representing his state and country. He has been living in London for the past two years, so the trip isn't as far as it sounds for him to get in on the exciting action during the poker festival.
Norway's Geir Söndeland describes himself as both a journalist and poker enthusiast. He shared that he enjoys playing both online and live games playing an almost equal share of each.
Fellow countrymate Birger Strand wound up on the feature table thanks to a promotion ran by NordicBet.
Tom Harris might be the biggest novice on the table. However, this doesn't mean he doesn't know what he is doing as he has been playing live poker games for about a year after learning the game while attending his university. He describes himself as a nit and his plan is to keep things tight throughout the game.
Day 4 is now up to nine tables. The biggest no-limit hold'em table is a £2/£5 but it is playing MUCH bigger than that with some aggressive play and average stack size of around £2,000.
UK poker pro David Clarkson has been seen enjoying the action at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City on and off for the past few days.
We caught up with him while playing on the action-packed £2/£5 table. His first thoughts about the Cash Game Festival London is that, "It's interesting. It's games and action are good."
Clarkson who is known to play higher than minimum stakes shared with us he began the day on the ground floor and hopes to end it in the nosebleeds. "I started today at £1/£1 and moved up to £1/£2," Clarkson commented. "Now I am playing £2/£5 and hopefully things will go well and I will keep playing higher."
A couple of nights ago, we noticed Clarkson playing £5/£10. He shared with us, "That didn't go well. I lost a big pot."
Clarkson also shared with us that he doesn't play as much online as he used to. "I play a little bit online, but not as much last year. It is a bit of a drain."
The pineapple open-face Chinese game was running on and off all four-days of the festival. The game just wrapped up, and one of the players, UK's Mark Wraith shared with us he has to get back to his studies.
Wraith truly enjoyed his experience sharing that especially considering the wide variety of games outside of hold'em and Omaha running, "I thought it was quite good. To be honest, I don't play much hold'em or Omaha. I have been playing poker for 20 years and these games can get quite boring."
While Wraith must have logged in close to 10 hours a day in just OFC action, he shared that he also got to play many other games as part of a lower-stakes dealer's choice spread stating that, "I played quite a lot of open-face Chinese, and last night got to play in the dealer's choice game."
While most of the tables at the Cash Game Festival are more suitable for players other than him, he did note that the huge amount of activity is also great for the casino as well. "However, it is the other games that is good for the card room," shared Wraith. "I don't care of there is one table or many in Omaha or hold'em though since I don't play them."
Overall it was a great four-days for Wraith based off most people's standards. "I won about £1,500 total, not bad for a few days work," proclaimed Wraith.
The Brit shared though perhaps he should have been studying instead though stating, "However, I don't know if this is a good trade-off as I should have been studying for my exams. I am studying for a masters of law. Next year I am doing a bar course, then I will become a barrister."
Wraith also shared this is his last hurrah in poker for a little while, "I promised my girlfriend I would take a break from poker after the Cash Game Festival to focus on my studies and then go on vacation."
That being said, the UK poker player hinted we may see more of him in the future stating that he might head to Vegas this summer if everything goes to plan.
