Nick Diaz in the House
The brains behind 32Red Poker and the man that runs the show Nick Diaz arrived in Bratislava to attend his second consecutive Cash Game Festival. Diaz has been with 32Red for 15 years and has immediately found his place in the Cash Game Festival family with players loving the calm and cool vibe he naturally brings.
Diaz began working at 32Red straight from university and he has never looked back.
"I finished university studying languages and applied for a summer job at 32Red," Diaz said to PokerNews. "I got the job on the basis I was going to apply my language skills and translate. I eventually got into poker side of things because to me it's a fun game."
Language skills were just the beginning of what Diaz brought to the table for 32Red. His ability to solve any and all issues that arose on the poker side guided his path to where he is now.
"We had a small support team and all the poker queries came to me," Diaz shared. "The team waited for me to come on shift to wait for these types of emails and issues. The operations director at the time asked me if I wanted to take on being the poker manager and I said yes. That's how it all started."
Diaz has had several poker management rolls at 32Red. Now he is a one-man show running the poker product for the online gaming company.
"I then went from poker manager to poker operations manager to poker marketing manager," said Diaz. "So, yeah, I officially run poker for 32Red."
Diaz shared that they have always been able to offer live entertainment suitable for tournament players and they have experimented in the past for sit-and-go players. However, cash game players make up an important part of the mix at 32Red Poker and until the Cash Game Festival there was nothing offered for this group of players.
"Cash games are one of the most important activities we have in terms of revenue and also in terms of what players enjoy," said Diaz. "We catered already for too many players for live tournaments and not anything for cash game players."
It also didn't hurt that the charismatic Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk is the festival's co-founder.
"As soon as I heard about the Cash Game Festival, I immediately became interested and immediately wanted in," said Diaz. "I met the co-founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk and we quickly hit it off."
The first collaboration between 32Red Poker and the Cash Game Festival took place during the Cash Game Festival London earlier in the year. Thanks to its big success, the partnership has grown bigger.
"We tested the waters during the last Cash Game Festival in London and we went fully all-in offering 10 packages for Bratislava," said Diaz. "One of the promotions was a biweekly leaderboard where we gave away two packages every two weeks along with €1,000."
The most active players aren't the only ones to be awarded as anyone can win Cash Game Festival packages in freerolls held once every three months at 32Red.
"In addition, I am giving a chance for all players to win packages," said Diaz. "We will try to host every three months a €5,000 freeroll where the top two winners can choose to attend a Cash Game Festival with a package valued at €1,500. In addition, another €2,000 in cash are awarded to others that cash."
Diaz thinks that the Cash Game Festival will only get bigger as time moves on.
"The festival does feel like it is something that will continue to grow," said Diaz. "Now that we have live entertainment for tournament and cash game players the next challenge is to find similar channels for sit-and-go and casino players."
Diaz plans to enjoy himself and got a head start tonight. This is his first-time in Bratislava and is just catching up with friends before hopping into site-seeing and of course playing some poker himself. We will catch up with Diaz later in the trip to see his impressions about the city and the Cash Game Festival Bratislava.