Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Game Festivals have proven to be exciting events that many low-stakes dealer’s choice aficionados and enthusiasts look forward to attending, and the sixth iteration has was no exception. Day 1 began with players filing in to the Resorts World Las Vegas poker room at noon hungry for some action… and pizza. Cards were in the air before any other cash games were started in the room.
Many now-familiar faces were in the room and some new faces appeared for the first time, too! Players had once again come to attend from all over the country. From our brief survey, we encountered players from New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, and California, among the Nevada locals. Some of the notable names in the room included Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Lupe Soto, Tim Duckworth, and Jesse Fullen.
Still two $4/8 dealer’s choice tables running at @PokerRoomRWLV
We’re 7.5 hours into Day 1 of @PokerLifeMedia Mixed Game Festival VI
Faces in the crowd include @PokerLupe and @Tim__Duckworth
Come join us 😀 pic.twitter.com/iMhJeRpH5s
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) November 27, 2023
This sixth festival has plenty of cool prizes and events planned. For instance, players have the chance to win a 15-minute massage, a prize being given out each day. To enter the drawing, all you have to do is scan the QR code being passed around on a laminated flyer and enter in your name and email address. Each participant in the daily drawing will receive a 3-day access pass to premium poker educational content on pokercoaching.com; so, quite literally, everyone’s a winner!
More giveaways abound. For instance, there are books from D&B Poker and independent author Jim Donahue being given away along with packs of Faded Spade playing cards BBO Poker Table mats, PokerGO gift bags and subscriptions, and the like. Plus, if you game select carefully, you might encounter some players giving away their chips… 🙂
Day 2 of Mixed Game Festival VI features a $260 buy-in Omaha 8 / Stud 8 tournament, Day 3 a poker trivia competition, Day 4 a “Women’s Wednesday” book signing with noted poker author Amanda Botfeld, and Day 5 a $260 buy-in HORSE tournament with a $5,000 WPT Voyage Prize package being added to the prize pool!
The first day of the festival kicked off with a pizza party! How could you say “no” to some free food and poker? Exciting Sunday NFL games were playing on the televisions in the room, ensuring a lively ambience to complement the nonstop action at the felt. Moreover, delicious donuts and cookies — provided gratis courtesy of MGF stalwart Chuck Martin and Resorts World poker room’s own shift manager Travis — were available for the players to enjoy as well as they selected what games to put in the rotation. You could hear the laughter from friends both old and new as they tossed around chips and played poker. Conversations could be heard about sports, travels, holidays, and different variants of poker.
Two regularly run mixed games — a $4/8 and an $8/16 were taking place alongside two additional Mixed Game Festival tables, with a different eclectic mix of players and games showcased at each table. Suddenly, there was some commotion…
Everyone started to look over to see what excitement was all about at one of the tables. They were playing at $4/$8 limits but you might not have thought that with one look at the amount of chips that were in the middle. The game being played was 5 card double board Omaha 8 or better: Best High / Best Low. Multiple players were confident in their hand and put their chips at risk to prove but only two players were triumphant. The final pot by my count was an astonishing $420. This is a game that I had not played before, but soon I would find out why there was so much money in the middle. When you have 5 cards that you can play with, there are a lot of possibilities that will keep you drawing.
I found myself in a conversation with a couple of the players on the topic of how No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em has become dominant in the poker scene. They were sharing stories of how they used to play limit or different variations of poker in the casinos “back in the day”. Can you believe that?!?!? Casinos everywhere used to spread games like Omaha 8, Stud, or 5 card draw. It makes me appreciate that there are events like this so that other variations of poker can still be played and taught to newer players.
Pokercoaching.com Player of the Day – Bruce Briggs
Today’s Pokercoaching.com Player of the day is Bruce Briggs! Bruce once hosted the Top Pair Home Game Poker Podcast which ran for 11 years before the show wrapped up after 365 episodes. The focus of the podcast was on home games, the perfect environment to learn all about all the wacky variations of poker. On June 14th, 2014 beginning with episode #212, this site’s founder Robbie Strazynski joined Bruce as co-host of the podcast and the duo would proceed to work together for six years. With Bruce based in Salt Lake City and Robbie in Israel, the pair had never met in person, until “the impossible” finally happened today.
Bruce Briggs and I used to co-host the Top Pair Home Game Poker podcast from 2014-2020.
We’ve never met in person.
Today he drove in from Salt Lake City to attend @PokerLifeMedia Mixed Game Festival VI at @PokerRoomRWLV.
Today is a great day 😃❤️ pic.twitter.com/AXcQvfMmsM
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) November 27, 2023
Bruce is still involved in the local poker scene in Salt Lake City where he resides. He participates in a group that can be found on Meetup where you can find home games that are being hosted 5-6 times a week. The games being hosted do not take a rake and they are all played for low stakes. Bruce says one of the more popular variations of poker that is played in SLC is Scrotum, an Omaha variant of poker. Bruce was the winner of a Faded Spade 2-deck setup of playing cards that were given away in a No-Peek Texas Hold ‘Em flip at his table. When asked about winning the playing cards, he shared that they will be put to good use in some of the home games found in Salt Lake City.
For hours on end, the Resorts World poker room had three tables of $4/$8 mix and one table of $8/$16 mix running. The new players that joined us had a blast! If you haven’t played mixed games before this will be the best environment to learn and have fun! It was a great turnout for the first day of Mixed Game Festival VI.
Our daily coverage of Mixed Game Festival VI is brought to you, with much appreciation, courtesy of WPT Voyage.
