Michael Fletcher has grown into one of the most well-liked players in the Cash Game Festival "family" after now attending most of the festivals this year.
While many players stay until Monday so they can still enjoy poker action late into Day 5, many others choose to go home during Day 5. Fletcher stayed in the casino as late as possible getting his last hands in before he said his goodbyes and headed to the airport for a flight leaving in a couple of hours.
Birthday boy Niklas Blomqvist has joined Veli-Matti Puumala and Betsafe Ambassador Monika Zukowicz in the commentary booth.
The threesome is having fun, to say the least, and in honor of guest hosting the stream and Blomqvist's birthday are drinking shots every time there is an all-in. During the first hour of the stream, this has happened three times.
Zukowicz shared with PokerNews that, "I agreed to the game because I thought there wouldn't be many all ins. After all, it is cash games. However, it has already been three times in the first hour!" Zukowicz said with a bit smile.
Finland's Arttu Iisakka is taking a break in the action after losing all his chips on the feature table and not reloading. Malta, where he lives now, is his second Cash Game Festival stop and he said he will likely go to Cash Game Festival Bulgaria at Platinum Casino in Sunny Beach from Aug. 9-13.
Iisakka loves the concept of combining both poker and fun into the same event and on the latest stop is part of the every growing number of players that has joined the "family" of like-minded poker players with common interests.
Brandon Allen is on a roll on the €1/€2 no-limit hold'em feature table. He bought in short, but now has a bunch of chips.
He first doubled up when he got in about 45 big blinds with pocket tens against ace-king. About 30 minutes later, he doubled up again when he called an all-in bet on the turn with the board reading . Allen was holding pocket queens and got a hold against nine-two suited when the completed the board on the river.
Finland's Petteri Vanhapelto, who lives now in Malta, was the biggest winner on the first stream notching in a profit of nearly €600. Not too far behind him was current Cash Game Festival Commentator Brandon Allen.
Vanhapelto, who was the Cash Game Festival commentator last year in Malta, has now been the biggest winner at the feature table two separate times during this festival. He will not be attempting to tie the record as he plans to join Brandon Allen in the booth to commentate the next stream.
One player that will be attempting to tie the record on the next stream is France's Tristan Chevalier. He shared that he would like to be part of history after learning last night he was one away from tieing the record.
The last feature table of the 2017 Cash Game Festival Malta has just kicked off with the stakes at €1/€2 no-limit hold'em. You can check out the coverage on the Cash Game Festival Twitch website and on PokerNews by clicking on the Live Stream tab in our coverage.
Current Cash Game Festival Commentator Brandon Allen and last year's Cash Game Festival Malta Commentator Petteri Vanhapelto were the two biggest winners on the first table and now are headlining the commentary.
Betsafe Ambassador Monika Zukowicz, Finnish comedian and poker player Veli-Matti Puumala and birthday boy Niklas Blomqvist moved from the commentary booth to compete on the feature table.
Another player to keep your eyes on is France's Tristan Chevalier, who is attempting to be the biggest winner at the feature table three straight times to tie a record with Norway's Knut Rysstad and Italy's Federico Drassich.
Malta's Kane Micallef, Poland's Marcin Krzan and Finland's Tommi Verkasalo are all among the players on the feature table hoping that they dash Chevalier's hopes and become the big winner themselves.
Malta's Kane Micallef, who is currently competing at the feature table in Seat 6, is a professional soccer player that also loves playing poker.
He wasn't always into poker his entire life. In fact, he can thank an ex-girlfriend for that passion even if their passion for love fizzled out.
I started playing some freerolls on Ultimate Bet because of an ex-girlfriend from Sweden who use to work at the company and told me about the site," shared Micallef.
Although both Ultimate Bet and his relationship with his then girlfriend both no longer exist, his love for poker has continued to grow.
Micallef is a competitor by nature and had a close call for a huge payday after navigating a huge field of around 900 players in the Malta Poker Cup.
"Perhaps my biggest achivement playing poker was when I took 19th place in huge field in the Malta Poker Cup two years ago," Micallef said.
While the 19th place prize awarded €1,870 or a bit lower than the €48,155 awarded to the eventual winner, Ukraine's Roman Skudar, Micallef was able to prove to himself he has what it takes to compete on both the soccer pitch and the poker felt.
Joining Petteri Vanhapelto and Brandon Allen in the booth is Cash Game Festival Regular Jack Fenton.
While Fenton skipped the last two stops in Tallinn and Gibraltar, before that he attended seven straight Cash Game Festivals. This now makes it his eighth stop on the tour.
