Guts.com Head of Poker Eirik Thorvaldsen Love "The Social Aspect" of the Cash Game Festival
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.