2018 Cash Game Festival London II
Day 3 Started
2018 Cash Game Festival London II
2018 Cash Game Festival London II
Day: 3
Bonus Feature Table Kicks Off Day 3 of the Cash Game Festival London
Welcome to Day 3 of the 2018 Cash Game Festival London at Aspers Casino. The action yesterday throughout the day and evening was electric both on and away from the tables.
Today's action should prove to be even bigger and more exciting. As a special treat, there will be an extra early televised feature table dubbed the Aspers Poker Special with players that qualified for a free stake in a tournament earlier in the week.
Players will be battling it out in £1/£1 no-limit hold'em commentated by Henry Kilbane and Jason Glatzer on a 20-minute delay with all hole cards exposed. George Sandford, who is one of the regular Cash Game Festival commentators will be also at the table.
Sandford heads away from the tables and back to his home in the commentary booth to co-host the 6 p.m. BST televised feature table with Kilbane. The stakes move up to £2/£2 no-limit hold'em featuring Cash Game Festival regulars Perry Smith and Kevin Malone.
The stakes move up in a big way to £5/£10 no-limit hold'em at 9 p.m. BST with Terry Jordan and others making their return. Sandford and Glatzer will host the commentary with special guests appearing throughout the evening.
You will be able to check out the three feature tables today at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m. BST at the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel and in our PokerNews coverage.
The side tables are expected to be even more packed than yesterday as well with the casino expecting at least 20 tables running simultaneously if not more as many more players are coming in for the weekend.
Also starting today is a two-day FIFA competition between some of the package winners, Cash Game Festival staff, and others. In line with the World Cup Finals, players will be randomly assigned to play as France or Croatia in a bracket format until one player is crowned the winner.
Stay tuned at PokerNews for the next three days as we report the hottest action during the 2018 Cash Game Festival London.
Aspers Poker Special Feature Table Begins
The Aspers Poker Special feature table has just begun. Henry Kilbane and Jason Glatzer will be hosting the commentating of what is bound to be an exciting six-max £1/£1 no-limit hold'em match.
Players secured a seat through a tournament earlier in the week and should be comfortable playing with a stake compliments of the house.
Among the players at the table are Michael Johns, Andrius Jonnsas, Kevin Deliarry, James Chen, Michael Sewoce, and Sirby Hady-Ahmed. George Sandford, who is usually commentating is among the players ready to take a seat if someone busts their stack and doesn't wish to reload.
The biggest winner of this table is not eligible to win the trophy as it is a special one-time event and not one of the main 10 feature tables.
James Simms Wins Aspers Poker Special Feature Table
Cash Game Festival regular James Simms was the biggest winner at the afternoon Aspers Poker Special £1/£1 no-limit hold'em feature table with a profit of £185.
Congrats to Simms. We will include this in the feature table stats but since it was a bonus feature table, players knew ahead of time it was not part of the trophy competition.
There will be a two-hour break before the next feature table begins. Stakes double to £2/£2 no-limit hold'em with Kevin Malone, Perry Smith, and Ian James among the players scheduled to be in the mix.
Plenty of Action During Break
Although the Cash Game Festival stream is currently on a two-hour break, this hasn't slowed down the action in the poker room. There are currently eight tables of no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha games running with the action expected to at least double this evening.
32Red Poker Qualifier Florian Schneider Headlining the Feature Table
32Red Poker is one of the proud partners of the Cash Game Festival. Thanks to many promotions and freeroll tournaments, many players from this online poker room are at every stop of the Cash Game Festival.
Germany's Florian Schneider is one of the players to win a free package valued at €1,500 to the Cash Game Festival London at Aspers Casino and is headlining the £2/£2 no-limit hold'em feature table in Seat 1.
Antony Wickert, in Seat 2, has been playing poker for nine years but has never attended a Cash Game Festival. He is far from new playing under the lights and camera as he has done so numerous times including when he took fifth place in the Irish Open Main Event for €35,000.
Paul Shircore, in Seat 3, has attended the Cash Game Festival before. However, this is his first t.v. table appearance. He has been playing poker for 15 years and at casinos for the past five.
Aneesh Bhadra is scheduled to play in Seat 4 but we are not able to get much information as he will join the action a little late. Meanwhile, James Briddon, in Seat 5, must have friends at the table since he shared, "I am looking forward to take money from my friends."
Ian James is making his second feature table appearance of this festival in Seat 6 followed by Sam Orledge in Seat 7. Orledge shared that what he likes the most about the t.v. table is that he will, "Get to see just how much bullshit other people say about their hands."
David Newson, in Seat 8, is also not new to the Cash Game Festival. He was the biggest winner at one of the feature tables the last time the festival hit the English capital in January.
Finn Stewart's Cash Game Festival "Experience Has Been Really Great"
Finn Stewart attended his first-ever Cash Game Festival and immediately hopped on both the £2/£2 pot-limit Omaha and the £5/£5 no-limit hold'em feature tables. He lost a little on the first before making most of it back on the second table.
Stewart is 32-year old professional poker player that got into the game 20 years ago. He explained that he got into the game partly because of his father and partly because of t.v.
"My dad taught me how to play," shared Stewart. "He always loved card games and was a bit of a gambler."
"I got into the game through an old t.v. show called Late Night Poker in the 90's," explained Stewart. "The show got the game a bit out of the underground a bit. I think it was a big thing, it certainly was a big thing for me. They would have eight heats and one final table and I remember it looked really cool. I remember I wanted to play poker very soon after seeing the show."
Stewart has been a professional poker player for the past decade, although part of the time he was a semi-pro working other jobs on the side. He shared that in the back of his head he always had the thoughts of becoming a poker pro on his mind after watching poker on t.v. However, he was also pushed into it a bit when he moved to France with his girlfriend and poker was one of the ways to make money without speaking the local language.
When we asked Stewart about whether he preferred tournaments over cash games, he immediately responded cash games.
"I play tournaments about four times a year and don't like to travel for these events with all the extra expenditures," said Stewart. "I do enjoy when I play tournaments, however."
"With cash games, I can play mostly locally," Stewart elaborated. "If I had a bad session, I can always call my girlfriend for a hug or to go out to a pub."
This is Stewart's first Cash Game Festival but it will unlikely be his last. His friend, Tony Coe, told him about the event and he appears to enjoy the friendly atmosphere generated by the festival alongside the great poker actoin.
"Part of the reason this is my first Cash Game Festival is that although Aspers is now my local card room, I didn't really play properly here this year," said Stewart. "I previously was playing primarily in central London."
"My friend Tony Coe sent me a link to the registration page and wanted to get experience appearing on a stream," shared Stewart. "The experience has been really great and anyone can enjoy it."
Stewart's experience has been positive for him despite the fact he didn't turn an overal profit, at least yet, on the televised streams.
"I played a bit of PLO on the feature table on Day 2 and lost a bit with aces and then was in a gross spot where my full house was outgunned by a better one," said Stewart. "I lost about £300 in that game. Last night I played £5/£5 hold'em and got into a horrid spot early on. I flopped a flush draw against Chris Yong, got it on the turn, but he filled up with full house. I was in a world of pain but found the fold. I was happy after seeing the hand later when I watched the stream."
"It turned around after I doubled up against Terry Jordan when my flush-draw completed," Stewart continued. "I ended that session about 200 up. So I booked a small loss overall. But I am hoping to play some 1/3 on the side tables tonight."
We asked Stewart if he would travel outside of London for a Cash Game Festival and it appears he has his eyes on heading to Sunny Beach, Bulgaria for the next Cash Game Festival on Aug. 8-12 at Platinum Casino. He is looking for a potential poker holiday, something that the Cash Game Festival is well-known to provide.
"Absolutely, I hope to attend more Cash Game Festivals," said Stewart. "The idea of Sunny Beach really appeals to me. I really love the sun and the beach. If I find a couple of mates that are interested in a poker-related holiday I will likely go."
Poker is often about players donating to others on the table. Stewart tries to save his donating to those more in need as in his spare time he helps out those that need someone to talk with at the charity Samaritans, which provides support to those thinking about suicide. Kudos to Stewart to giving back to the community.
32Red Poker Regular Edgars Armans' Top Three
We will ask a variety of people throughout the next few days the top three things they like the most about the Cash Game Festival.
32Red Poker reg Edgars Armans is now at his fourth straight Cash Game Festival. He keeps winning packages to the festival via promotions and freerolls and has impressively already won eight packages.
So in other words, we will be seeing a lot more of Armans at the tour, who is already considered by the other regulars as part of the Cash Game Festival family.
Armans shared with PokerNews the top three reasons he loves the Cash Game Festival and why he wants to come back for more.
- People
- The cash games
- Atmosphere
Armans plans to play in a special 32Red Poker game at Aspers Casino hosted by 32Red Poker Manager Nick Diaz this evening and is also currently involved in the FIFA contest being held right outside the poker room.
Day 2 Video Highlights
Ian James Wins Big
The £2/£2 no-limit hold'em feature table is now in the books. Ian James shipped the biggest profit of £512 or 256 big blinds.
Next up, is a higher stakes £5/£10 no-limit hold'em feature table. PokerNews Editor Jason Glatzer and Cash Game Festival's George Sandford will be manning the commentary booth.