2017 Cash Game Festival London (Winter)

2017 Cash Game Festival London
Day: 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the 2017 Cash Game Festival London

Cash Game Festival London
Cash Game Festival London

Welcome to PokerNews' live coverage of Day 4 of the 2017 Cash Game Festival London at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City.

Yesterday was the biggest day of the festival thus far and established a new 2017 record with both 23 tables running simultaneously across many games including no-limit hold'em, dealer's choice Omaha, dealer's choice mixed games and Sviten Special.

Today is set to be even bigger. There are already half a dozen tables running early this afternoon many of which are running from the night before.

Last night's big feature table winner Jack Fenton was seated at one of the no-limit hold'em tables. He shared with us that he was playing through the night and couldn't leave the casino since "the games are very loose."

The early televised feature table will be kicking off at 5:30 p.m. GMT on a 20-minute delay with stakes at £1/£2 no-limit hold'em. The later televised table will feature high stakes action. You check out each hand as it happens on the televised feature tables here on PokerNews as well as on the Cash Game Festival website and on the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel once action kicks off. In the meantime, you can head to the Twitch channel to see some of the action from the previous three days.

Later in the night, players will the hospitality package will be heading to a VIP beer pong party at 10 p.m. GMT at The Bat and Ball. Previous activities included a VIP dinner at Jamie's Italian yesterday, an aerial tour of London from the 114.5 meter tall ArcelorMittal Orbit (which included sliding down the structure on the biggest slide in the world) on Thursday, a special viewing of a Champions League football match and welcome drinks at the casino to kick things off on the first day.

Coverage will kick off at around 5:00 p.m. GMT and continue throughout the day and evening. Stay tuned at PokerNews as we report the latest and greatest news from the 2017 Cash Game Festival London.

Sin Menis Melin Thinks the Cash Game Festival is "Pretty Amazing"

Sin Menis Melin
Sin Menis Melin

Sin Menis Melin has been playing poker for many years and is well-known throughout the United Kingdom for her love of partying and poker. She is currently a local 888poker Ambassador for events at Aspers Casino and found out about the Cash Game Festival London through one of her many frequent visits to her "home" casino.

Anyone around Melin can easily interpret she has been having a blast at the Cash Game Festival London. We asked about how her introduction to the festival went.

"Wednesday (Day 1) was pretty amazing and it took Thursday to completely recover," Melin said. "So, I'll let you guys work that one out yourselves."

Melin went on to work it out for us, instead of leaving us to our imagination.

"It was good fun." said Melin. "We played some good fun games. Obviously, we watched some football in the bar. I am an Arsenal fan and they lost so it wasn't a good result. But we had great fun and aftward went to play some Omaha."

It wasn't a typical game of Omaha, as there were many prop bets and flips. There were also many entertaining players on the table including Cash Game Festival co-founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk. Also, during the game itself, players were dealt six cards with one of them intentionally exposed by the dealer.

Melin was hooked on the Cash Game Festival after the first day and shared she hopes to hit many of the other stops on the tour including Cash Game Festival Slovenia on March 8-12. The poker player has traveled quite a bit for poker in the past, but she shared that she never traveled for cash games which is one of her passions in poker.

Melin also is well-known as one of poker's most sociable players. She was once a Full Tilt pro and frequently attended many UKIPT and other tournament festivals. She admitted that during that time she drank a lot.

However, that was all different in 2016. Melin's friend offered her a prop bet at 10:1 odds that she couldn't drink for a year. Melin explained to us a bit about this challenge.

"I didn't want to stop drinking, but it was about me proving a point and winning a bet," Melin shared. "I was playing a cash game, and someone offered me a bet about smoking cigarettes before someone else on the table upped the ante and said I will give you a better bet and you don't drink for one year."

Melin shared with her friend that she felt it was easy, however, her friend said it wouldn't be for her. Melin felt it would be hard for a couple of months, but at the end of the day felt she had the confidence to meet the challenge.

Near the end of her prop bet, PokerNews' Sarah Herring interviewed Melin at an event at Aspers Casino.

Melin's confidence paid off, although she admitted, "It wasn't easy, but I was proud of myself that I did it. Everyone that knows me on the circuit knows I was a big drinker."

Meeting the challenge provided Melin other benefits as well.

"I lost some weight," shared Melin before adding, "Not that I was big. I stopped playing tournaments last year because of that since I felt I couldn't be trusted and not drink. I didn't want to fail by not having any willpower and I even didn't go to Las Vegas last summer."

Melin further explained that her moving away from tournaments was one of the reasons she played more cash games and began heading to Aspers Casino more. She also shared that this helped her gain some confidence in herself as a person.

Now that the prop bet is over, Melin found no reason not to go back to drinking, especially when in the casino. However, the things that she learned including her love of cash games and her confidence in herself appear to be part of her for the long-run.

We will likely see more of Melin throughout the festival as well as events down the road.

Tags: Cash Game Festival LondonSin Menis Melin