Inga Raudsepp Interview
VIP-Grinders: Hello Inga and thank you very much for taking the time. Can you please introduce yourself?
Inga Raudsepp: My name is Inga and I work for a poker festival tour called the Cash Game Festival (CGF). I manage CGF’s content for the social media and the website www.cashgamefestival.com. I also communicate with our Players and Partners. During our live events across Europe, you see me running around a lot or sitting at my Mac, putting out news and content for our social media channels. In our office in Tallinn, Estonia, I help the team with several things and also work on a couple of other projects. I started working for CGF at the end of January 2017, so I feel I still have a lot to learn about poker world. But it is a great life experience, for sure. I could have never imagined that one day, I would have a job like that.
VG: Do you play poker?
IR: No, I don’t. But I still try and write about it. I know the basics and I definitely understand that there is a major difference between tournaments and cash games. Cash gamers need festivals like that and they also need to relax and socialize when they are not playing. So, I understand that our festival is like a paradise to some of our regulars, who travel with us from stop to stop. I try and keep the social aspect of the festival under control. However, all the other members of our team love poker, so they help me with every little poker question. All I need to do is ask for their help or advice.
VG: Can you describe what the Cash Game Festival is all about?
IR: The Cash Game Festival is an event organized by people who are passionate about poker games and traveling. Moreover, they love good food and enjoy spending time with interesting people. A good party is a must during Cash Game Festival live events. The Cash Game Festival offers 24/7 cash games throughout 5-day live events. In addition, the festival features live online broadcasts straight from our TV tables that are set up in our host casinos. These live streams are run by our own professional production team and can be viewed on Twitch. The festivals are spiced up with fine dining, fierce partying and several other activities that introduce local sights and culture. People actually find new good friends during our festivals. That is very heart-warming.
VG: The Cash Game Festival is in its second season. How is the event doing and what are your plans for the future?
IR: Growing really fast in 2017. We have 11 stops in 2017, which means traveling to a new location every month. What started as a local Cash Game Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, has now become a Europe-wide poker tour. This year, we have already been in London, Slovenia, Tallinn (local festival), Gibraltar, Malta, Bulgaria. In September, we will go to London again. October will hopefully see us in Dublin, November in Tallinn again. In December, we are hoping to go back to Slovenia and have a festival in a sky resort. We have not yet published the official dates. We will do so when we are sure that our partners are on board and that everything is under our control. For example, we had to cancel Minsk in July because of a very unexpected course of events involving regulations and local licenses. And we do not cancel easily! We were very sad about it, but we will try again in the future.
Stanislav Stefanov Interview
We also sponsored Stanislav Stefanov for the Cash Game Festival in Sunny Beach Bulgaria.
He was playing three days on the TV table and also did an interview. Find out how he was doing and how his first Cash Game Festival experience was:
Hi Stan, can you please introduce yourself for those who don’t know you?
My name is Stanislav Stefanov and I am working as Regional Manager for VIP-Grinders.com. I started playing poker back in 2009 and used to play the game for a living for about 5 years. In 2014 I joined VIP-Grinders.com and I am really happy to be working for the company till present.
You are visiting Cash Game Festival for the first time. What made you come to Cash Festival and why did you choose Bulgaria?
Cash Game Festival is an awesome event, where poker players can meet each other, play some poker and enjoy social events. It was an easy decision as I am living in Varna, which is pretty close to Sunny Beach resort where the fesitval took place.
You were playing €2/€5 No-Limit Hold’em on the first day of the festival at the TV Table. It was your first time in front of cameras. Were you nervous and did it have an influence on your game?
Well, I was a bit nervous, because I never before played €2/€5 live and secondly I wasn’t active on the tables for more than 1 year. However I managed to adapt fast and I’m very happy with the result. I don’t mind the cameras at all.
It went pretty well for you at your premiere. Did you have a game plan and can you sum up the session from your point of view?
Well, I actually had no plan at all. I decided to play short stack strategy, but lost the first buy-in with JJ vs KK. I made a rebuy and for the next 2 hours I was running really well. I didn’t play my A-Game, but still I managed to make the maximum from 2 hands, which actually made me leaving the table in second position.
“My first time at Cash Game Festival was awesome”
You are representing VIP-Grinders.com at Cash Game Festival Bulgaria. Can you describe in a few words what the site is about?
VIP-Grinders.com is run by passionate online poker professionals and we offer the best rakeback deals and poker promotions on the internet as well as excellent deals and solutions for poker affiliates. We offer poker news, videos, tools as well as the best Skrill and NETTELLER cashback deals, staking and legal advice.
Do you play a lot of live cash game or do you prefer online poker?
Back in the days I used to play online poker every day. I started in 2009 and played actively till the middle of 2014 mainly low stakes. Nowadays I prefer to play live as I know from my experience that you cannot really have fun playing on 12 tables.
Did you come to the Cash Game Festival only to play poker or also due to the many activities and parties?
I attended Cash Game Festival mainly because of the side activities and the fact that I wanted to socialize a bit more and meet new people. Of course i also wanted to play poker, to feel the thrill and also to prove myself that I’m still the player not to mess with.
How was your first Cash Game Festival experience and are you planning on travelling to other stops in the future?
My first experience at Cash Game Festival was really awesome, I enjoyed all the activities pretty much. Nowadays I’m not playing poker professionally and my attendance of the future CGF stops is under question. However I’ll be more than happy to see the team of Cash Game Festival again here in Bulgaria next year or maybe sooner 🙂
