Some good news to pass on for US readers today, as Fast-Fold Poker hits your shores. I’ll also cover my favorite OnGame tournament (the Fishmarket) and do a mini-review of the Sziget Festival, which I have been fortunate enough to attend for the 6th or 7th time this past weekend.
First up, Bovada.lv have won the race to bring Fast-fold poker to the US (they also cover Canada via their Bodog.eu brand). This is called 'Zone Poker' and like Rush Poker and Zoom + the many clones out there, this pools players and takes you to a new hand as soon as you fold – with the fold out of turn speeding things up massively. Since I am not US based I can not experience this one for myself – it will be interesting to see how the anonymous play of Bovada and the speedy new format work together.
As always I recommend you head to the newest games, these are always the most profitable early, before the ‘regulars’ hone their strategies and settle in for the grind!
Red Kings Fishmarket Runs 19th August – Free $11 Tournament Token
I have been blogging about the Fishmarket for a few years now. This is a $7500 guaranteed tournament with some cool extra prizes, and every new depositor at OnGame’s Red Kings Poker gets a free $11 entry ticket on top of their welcome bonus package.
This tournament is open to all players on the network, and the large number of first-time people with their free tickets does attract a crowd. I’d rate it as a $11 tournament with a $1 tournament standard of play.
You will get an extra $300 bonus at Red Kings the first time you are dealt the two red kings together in a cash game – this goes up to $500 if you lose at showdown! You can also grab a free copy of Holdem Manager 2 Pro as part of your welcome bonus (hit the promotions tab, the HM2 info is second from last on the left hand side list). Grab your Fishmarket token over at Red Kings Poker now!
Sziget Festival Wrap-Up
Live music has always been a passion of mine, in fact I played bass in bands for many years before retiring to the audience side of the stage. Over the last weekend the subject of how many music festivals everyone attended came up. No exact count from me, it is 40+ though, including a lot of Reading Festivals, a ton of Glastonbury trips and many smaller ‘free festivals’ at the end of the 80’s… I am now happy to include 6 or 7 Sziget Festivals to my count… and hopefully many more.
Sziget translates as ‘Island’ and is held on an island on the river Danube in Budapest, Hungary. It is regularly voted as a top 5 European event and has a ton of stages and loads of side events going on. It is the most international festival I have attended, with people coming from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and the UK (+ this region)… more visitors than Hungarians I think.
I managed 3 of the 5 main days this year, with the highlights being Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (awesome!), Blur (a very good greatest hits show) and Franz Ferdinand (toe-tapping guitar tunes). There were a couple of interesting discoveries, Colorstar, a Hungarian prog(ish) band were good, and Dry the River from the UK impressed me with their folk laced rock classics… The street theater show with giant flying machines on the last night was also great.
With cheap beer, music all night (last acts are 4am!) and 24 hour transport back to the city, the Sziget really ticks all the boxes. If you love live music then head on over next year!
GL at the tables, Mark
Submitted by Planet Mark on Wed, 08/14/2013 - 10:02