Day 2 – A Good Poker Day in London at Aspers Stratford

Day 2 in London started and ended with early-hour poker action. On day 1, the games were being played here at Aspers Casino Stratford till the early hours of the second day. On day 2, cash games continued till the early hours of day 3. This is how it is done at the Cash Game Festival – 24/7 poker if possible. That is our aim and goal and wish, during festivals, to offer games that players want to play, and to offer these games whenever they want to play.
Besides the early poker action, the day in the good old England started with the fun activity as a part of our hospitality package. They players were taken to play golf in the urban way – playing it indoors and in a simulator. One may think that simulation golf is nothing like real golf in fresh air and on green hills. True, it is different. However, this is an interesting activity for those who appreciate the technological process, fun games and big city vibes. London is a cosmopolitan with loads of people and a ton of urban development – people living here need to be creative in how they can get all the fun activities “under the city roof”. So, the simulation golf was something proper to do in London, since it reflects the beauty and energy of modern city life.
Before the golf challenge, we met jolly team NordicBet in the casino. They are a punch of happy qualifiers from Norway led by the NordicBet poker manager Jostein Grødum. Yesterday, these guys were certainly up for the challenge and then for some cash games later on. For example, the Norwegian player Daniel Straume who, for the first time, was with us in Bulgaria in August, was back again with team NordicBet. He got so impressed with the festival’s atmosphere in August that he wanted to come back and enjoy London stop. This time, he brought a friend with him.
Anyway, in the golf simulator, teams of 4 were playing against each other. The team led by John Scanlon, Aspers Casino Stratford Head of Poker, may have done very well. However, the winners will be most likely announced at Saturday’s VIP party, so we will not yet comment on the matter.
The first Twitch TV table of day 2 was £2 / 5 hold’em. Daniel Straume’s friend Morten Lie got a chance to play since one of the registered players could not make it. Lucky for him, he got to sit in seat 6 and enjoy the live action in front of the cameras. Morten, a real estate agent by day and a very likable guy, loves traveling for poker, so the Cash Game Festival is an ideal venue for him.
All in all, we had some interesting players on the first TV table. For example, Jane Slowey in seat 8 whose first Cash Game Festival was this year in Gibraltar where she is currently residing. She fell in love with the festival and simply had to come to London for round 2. So, she flew to London and landed at the first TV table just like that. Before the festival, she was excitedly texting the whole team that she would be in London, sending a photo of her plane ticket confirmation. What a lovely poker lady she is. She game to London just for a day and a half not to miss the festival buzz. In Gibraltar, she played every day during our 5-day festival there. Not wanting to miss this stop, she had to rearrange her schedule to be able to come at all. She was very excited yesterday and told us that she had been watching all Cash Game Festival videos on our channels.
Surprise, surprise! The second TV table was £5 / 10 hold’em. Not many players wish to play high-stakes poker in front of the cameras but if they do, the action will be more serious and exciting at the same time.
In seat #1, we saw Jorge Alberdi Fernandez who is currently living in London but is originally from Basque Country, Spain. He has been to the Cash Game Festival before, in 2016 to be precise, and came back this time to enjoy £5 / 10 hold’em live action. Online, he plays medium-stakes poker while preferring to play high-stakes live. There is something we have noticed about the Spanish players that we have met so far – they do love serious live poker action. It must be in their Southern blood. A very nice guy, we are hoping that he would be back for more games, since we also have high-stakes tables outside TV tables.
While the £5 / 10 hold’em TV table was running, we had 14 cash game tables running at Aspers Casino poker room by about 9.30 PM. The action was good with many familiar faces walking in and settling down for cash games. The Londoners know that the Cash Game Festival is in town again, so they make an effort to come and take part of the festival. By 10 PM it was 15 tables, and then, about 20 minutes later we already had 16 tables running which meant that day 1 table record got broken by roughly 10.20 PM. The action continued well into early morning hours. We even had one Sviten Special table running, since Peter La Terra, the unofficial king of Sviten from Sweden, was in the house. Peter loves the festival, traveling with us to almost every stop all across Europe. Pleasure to see him in London again – him and his Sviten vibes.
It is certainly worth mentioning that UK-based Jason Wong was the star last night. He played at the second TV table and won the biggest pot of about £4,400. He booked a total profit of £1,450 or 145 big blinds. However, since day 1 TV table profit was £2,694 or 538.8 big blinds, Jason is currently not in the run for the Cash Game Festival TV table trophy. However, he promised to be back today, on day 3, so everything is still possible.

The first draw of the Cash Game Festival High Hand Game took place yesterday at 9 PM. Cash Game Festival manager Andro Loos personally announced the two winners. The lucky guys are Graham Peter Hawkes and Fozi Abdi. They are both regular Aspers players. Congratulations and welcome to our Dublin stop on Oct 11 – Oct 15! Certainly, the full packages make their journey to Dublin very pleasant. They both won hotels for 2, Dublin hospitality packages for 2 and some stake money to spend in the Village Green Card Club. The total value of one package is £1350.
Keep in mind, that the second High Hand Game draw will take place on Sunday at 2 PM. The potential winner has to physically be at the casino at the time of the draw to be able to win his/her package to Dublin. Be there and good luck!
This evening, Cash Game Festival Team and our proud Partners will welcome the players to dinner to remember. The feast will be in Busaba Stratford City and the aim of the fancy dinner is, of course, to drink, eat and socialize galore.
Stay tuned for day 3 poker action on our Twitch channel as one of the sessions is promising to be a high-stakes one again. Maybe some exciting £5 / 10 hold’em action! (wink, wink)
Yours,
Cash Game Festival Team
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