Cardplayer Lifestyle Founder Robbie Strazynski launched the inaugural Mixed Game Festival this year, with two key goals. The first was celebrating mixed games. The second, giving amateur players the chance to try out different poker variants in a casual and low-stakes setting. By most accounts across social media, the event was a success, bringing out both new players and veteran players who share a love for mixed games. And it was one of those veterans that came out on top in the festival’s $200 H.O.R.S.E. tournament on Thursday night, as 2004 WSOP Champion Greg Raymer scored the win.
Greg Raymer wins the PokerStars Platinum Pass
Greg Raymer is no stranger to mixed game tournament success. Eight of Raymer’s top 14 World Series of Poker cashes have come in mixed games, including a 14th place finish in the 2007 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for $103,008.
Thursday night’s event sold out, drawing a total of 124 players. Strazynski was thrilled with the turnout. “It was great to see so many familiar faces from the previous three days of the festival,” Strazynski told us after Raymer’s win. “To have bracelet winners like Nathan Gamble, Chris Wallace and Robert Turner, as well as poker hall of famer Linda Johnson compete in the event was wonderful. For a former WSOP main event champion like Greg Raymer to win was absolutely amazing!”
Thanks to a sponsorship from PokerStars, this tournament had a whole lot of extra equity up the top in the form of a PokerStars Platinum Pass. The Platinum Pass includes a $25,000 buy-in into the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship for whenever it is rescheduled to. It also includes hotel accommodations and other expenses, bringing its total value to nearly $30,000.
An exciting end to a fun week of mixed games
Nathan Gamble made a deep run in the 2021 WSOP $1,500 Dealers Choice event earlier this week. He scored a seventh-place finish for $9,768. There were plenty of other high-stakes mixed game events on the WSOP schedule for Gamble to jump into from there, but he opted to spend some time at the Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Game Festival instead.
“Probably back to the [Mixed Game Festival] for some cash game fun,” Gamble tweeted when asked where he’d be playing next. “Don’t feel like playing any big stakes right now.”
The laid back atmosphere of the low-stakes cash game scene at the Westgate Las Vegas was enticing to pros and amateurs alike. In addition to Raymer, Gamble, Chris Wallace, Robert Turner, and Linda Johnson, other pros including Eli Elezra, Brian Hastings, Garry Gates, Ben Ludlow, and many more also participated. So did many members of the poker media like Donnie Peters, Tim Duckworth, Chad Holloway, and Jeff Platt.
Hopefully, the success of this festival generates more like it. There is clearly a market for low-stakes and casual mixed-games players that isn’t being tapped into in the No-Limit Hold’em dominated poker room scene.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter - CardplayerLife
