United Kingdom's Ryan Davey arrived into Tallinn yesterday and immediately hopped onto the feature table. He took a short break when it was over and joined Cash Game Festival commentator Brandon Allen in the commentary booth for more than two hours.
Today, Cash Game Festival fans are once again treated to the informative analysis by Davey in the commentary booth for the €5/€5 no-limit hold'em stream.
British players have likely seen Davey around. He built his bankroll from a single $50 deposit in online poker playing small-stakes tournaments into a big enough bankroll where he can travel around the world including to the World Series of Poker this summer. Before that, he hopes to make it to the Cash Game Festival Gibraltar at Sunborn Casino from May 17-21.
Davey has now attended four Cash Game Festivals (two in London, two in Tallinn) and before he hopped on the stream he spent a few minutes with PokerNews to talk about his experiences.
"I went to my first Cash Game Festival at Aspers Casino in London in September after finding the stream on Twitch," shared Davey. "Brandon invited down and offered to buy me a beer, so I had to take him up on his offer."
Davey is a big fan of poker streams and shared that is what he usually spends his time set aside for television watching. It was just by random luck he came across the Cash Game Festival stream.
"There were no big streams that day," Davey said. "Then I saw one at Aspers and I play there on a semi-regular basis and thought I would check it out."
It is one thing to visit your local casino to attend a Cash Game Festival and another to hop on a plane like many ring game lovers do to visit the festival on the road. However, the decision seemed easy for Davey. He loved his experience so much he decided to pack his bags at the end of last year to attend the previous Cash Game Festival Tallinn in November.
"It was the atmosphere the festival brought," shared Davey when we asked him about why he came to Tallinn the first time. "
I love the family community feel. I have 10 casinos within an hour's drive, but I choose to travel on a plane to come to the festival to be around these guys."
Now Davey is back at Olympic Park Casino for the second time in less than half a year.
"The casino is really nice and the festival on the road provides a huge buzz," Davey said. I would go to all of them if I could. Tallinn is a beautiful city and it is my favorite city in Europe. The games are good, the parties are good, the atmopshere is good and everything is good. There are no negative things I can draw from the festival, just positive."
While Davey has watched many poker streams, he admitted his first time doing some commentary was a bit overwhelming. However, anyone watching even his first appearance would share he was a natural and someone players can grab some strategic insight into the games from.
"Appearing on the stream for the first time was quite a bit overwhelming," said Davey. "As I mentioned, I watched the stream and went down the Aspers the next day, popped over to Brandon, collected my free drink, hopped on a table and won a little money. Then on Brandon's break I popped on over and he invited me to commentate on the stream with him. I think it went pretty well. Brandon was happy with the content I provided as was Andro Loos (Cash Game Festival Project Manager)."
While Davey hasn't been around the festival for as long as some of the other veterans, he likes what he sees and has seen improvement on each stop. He also believes the sky is the limit for the festival.
"I have seen the Cash Game Festival grow just in the short-time I have been traveling to the events." said Davey. "This is down to the equipment and set-up and every month it gets better and better. I don't think there is any limit to how far this can go. I hope to see the festival in Vegas and cross the divide of casinos in Europe to a global appeal. I think it can be done."
