Viewers of today's Cash Game Festival televised table stream are invited to a special €500 freeroll on Betsafe at 10 p.m. GMT. The password will be released near the beginning of the second stream of the day at 9 p.m. GMT.
In addition to commentating, Brandon Allen will also be playing in the freeroll. If you knock him out, you will collect a bounty.
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.
The new €2/€5 televised feature table is about to begin. Once it does, there will be 18 tables running or 5 less than the 2017 Cash Game Festival record set yesterday of 23 or 10 short of the overall Cash Game Festival record of 28 tables established last year.
Here is a breakdown of the tables.
Action at the Aspers Casino poker room has grown to 15 ring game tables and shows no signs of slowing down. One of the new tables is a £2/£5 pot-limit Omaha table. Another £2/£5 table in no-limit hold'em will be getting ready in about an hour for the televised feature table.
David Clarkson was the star of the show on the late televised feature table on Day 1 and is hoping for a repeat performance in the late £2/£5 no-limit hold'em feature table today in Seat 1. The United Kingdom poker player recently shared that he is going to do his best to also attend the next festival in Slovenia.
Manoj Mohindra also appeared on the feature table and makes a return in Seat 2. Next to him is Duncan Higgins in Seat 3 who was a guest in the commentary booth for the last stream.
Naveed Khan is one seat over in Seat 4 and joked (we assumed) that his favorite hand is seven-two.
Alexis Savvides and Duncan Mackie sit side by side in Seat 5 and Seat 6.
Shah Raza once again is on the feature table in Seat 7 and Bulgaria's Rossiza Groueva, who began playing poker three years ago, rounds out the table in Seat 8.
