Cash Game Festival Day 1 – Hello, Sunny N’ Hot Malta Poker!

The first festival day on the little Island of Malta greeted us with hot sunny weather. The sky was as blue as it could be, summer moods all around – more than 320 sunny days a year on the island or so they say.

Like always, we started with refreshing welcome drinks at 5 PM. This time at Casino Malta to where we happily returned this year. The 5 o’clock drinks give everybody a chance to meet n’ greet, exchange the latest news etc. which really helps to set the mood for the five festival days ahead.
So, in Malta, like at other stops, there were many warm greetings between friends. Really heart-warming is the fact that the Cash Game Festival has become a vehicle for building new friendships. Talking about friendship, surprise, surprise – Betsafe Ambassador Monika Zukowicz whose first Cash Game Festival was in Gibraltar last month, and who had previously said that she would not make it to Malta stop, walked in to welcome drinks at around 5.30 PM. The whole team was delighted to see her. This poker girl with brains is in high spirits every day and simply exudes positivity, making everybody around her smile. Having been recently titled the Princess of Charity by helping Janar Kokk, the now famous-in-Poland Cash Game Festival prop bet loser (and now stuck in Poland due to the prop bet between him and the CGF founder Franke), to arrange the charity tournament in the little Polish town of Hrubieszów, she has definitely entered the fun circle of Cash Game Festival friends. Later in the evening, Monika tried her luck at a poker table and was seen, again, in our Twitch commentator’s booth with our ninja star Brandon Allen. Why “ninja star”? You may find out from Brandon if you watch the stream.

Team Guts was present at welcome drinks. Guts.com Ambassador and The Princess of Poker, Silje Nilsen is yet to properly greeted in coming days.
Maxime, the Cash Game Festival’s London-based vlogger and the French correspondent, was getting into gear to gather material for his fun festival-time vlogs that will certainly entertain us all. While being a recreational poker player, he is also a little comedian at heart, knowing well how to get people cracking up with laughter.

The first TV table of the day was €1/€2 no-limit hold’em. In addition, this table also featured some shot games. Namely, Guts.com Head of Poker Eirik Thorvaldsen along with few other lads, decided to play a shot game –  if they won a hand with seven-two, they could choose a player to down a shot. In addition to mixing alcohol with the TV table action, Eirik was also the biggest winner at the table.

The second TV table of the day saw Conor Coady in seat #7. Apparently, he is one the key people with the future launch of RunItOnce online poker room, according to Jason Glatzer from Pokernews.com.

The second TV table also featured Petteri Vanhapelto from Finland who won big by making €1,200 in profit. This time, Petteri chose to be a player at the festival. However, last year in Malta, he was doing Brandon Allen’s job by commenting the live action at our TV table. Welcome back!
The second TV table already on, Betsson Poker Manager Marika Nowak joins Brandon in the commentary booth, giving her analysis of the ongoing game. What a great action at and around the second TV table of the day.

To everybody’s delight, United Kingdom’s London-based Sin Menis Melin finally joined the festival again. We met her at Aspers Stratford in London, and after her many attempts to join CGF at other stops, she finally made it to Malta.
Sin is a London based pro tournament player, a former Ambassador for Full Tilt back in the day, and a well-known figure on the UK Poker scene. She knows her game and her character is guaranteed to spice up the action at the Cash Game Festival.
Yesterday night, Sin played at €1/€2 no-limit hold’em table. One of us went to “bother” her to have a little friendly chat. “My personal life is better than poker,” she said when asked how the game was going. Moreover, she made me sit down at the poker table and had me gulping down some of her screwdriver-like cocktail. Moreover, she ordered us tequila shots to celebrate the friendly encounter. Having had the shots, we went for a little chat on “personal matters” which will not be revealed. However, we learned that she flew in to Malta alone and will be heading to Vegas at the end of the month to “just tequila”. Something tells us that she will do some poker as well. You can follow her public Facebook page to get to know her better.
We also learned that Sin arrived a day early and went out dancing with some of the Cash Game Festival team members who had also arrived in Malta a day or two earlier. Most likely, in coming festival days, she will join Brandon at his Twtitch commentary booth. Sensing another party coming up in the booth, like it happened at Cash Game Festival 2017 London stop.
During the evening, some of the players were taking a break by watching tennis. The MercedesCup in Stuttgart, Germany is currently on. Hit it hard but smart, you all.

The first festival day action was hot. Already at around 11:30 PM, six tables were running – Holdems and Omahas with stakes of 2 / 2, 2 / 5 and 1 / 2. Hoping to get 5 / 10 tables one of these days.
Thursday morning will see some of our Players and Partners going on a sunny catamaran trip. To be more exact, on an open bar catamaran trip. Sounds exciting or what?

HELLO, MALTA!

Yours,
Cash Game Festival Team

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