Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Game Festival Targets Casual Players

Cardplayer Lifestyle will be running its first-ever branded live event festival October 4-7 at the Westgate Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. PokerStars is sponsoring the event, which features three days’ worth of low-stakes Dealer’s Choice cash games, culminating in a $200 HORSE Main Event, which will also award a Platinum Pass to the PokerStars Players Championship to the winner.

The series primarily focuses on the often overlooked variants of poker outside of the No-Limit Hold’em (and, to a lesser extent, Pot-Limit Omaha) games that dominate the poker landscape inside poker rooms and at online poker sites. Its timing is also in line with the beginning of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which begins on Thursday, September 30, and concludes just before Thanksgiving.

Mixed Game Festival Details

Westgate Las Vegas will also be offering discounted hotel room rates of only $50 per night ($80 on October 7) for those who wish to take advantage of them. Best of all, those prices are final – no resort fees will be added to that total.

Full festival details can be found on the Cardplayer Lifestyle website, with more information on giveaways, Q&A sessions, and other promos.

Catering To Mixed Game Enthusiasts

Such a festival is a milestone for Cardplayer Lifestyle and a meaningful one for its Founder Robbie Strazynski. Strazynski lives in Israel, a country devoid of casinos, meaning he must travel abroad to play anything outside of his home games (where mixed games are prevalent, of course).

While he said the opportunity to play live anywhere is special, it is slightly disheartening to see that low-stakes mixed games are largely obsolete in brick-and-mortar poker rooms. As such, Strazynski wants to appeal to the poker enthusiasts that play mixed variants in their home games just as he does, giving them a chance to try their hand in the live casino setting.

“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first poker festival that’s been run with an exclusive focus on promoting mixed games, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to host it,” said Strazynski of the event.

Strazynski also weighed in on his favorite games in rotation: “If I had to pick a favorite mix of games to play, it would consist of: 2-7 Triple Draw, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Low, Badugi, Badacey, Badeucey, and Double Board Omaha High… and maybe an occasional hand of Archie mixed in for kicks.”

Giveaways All Week Long

While the Platinum Pass (valued at $30,000) giveaway is undoubtedly the biggest draw to the Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Games Festival, it is a package that just one player will win. That doesn’t mean all other players will be walking away empty-handed, though, as other partners such as BBO Poker Tables, RunGoodGear, and Faded Spade Playing Cards will also contribute to the swag giveaways set to occur throughout the festival.

Upswing Poker is also offering a 25% discount on its Mixed Game Mastery course in conjunction with the festival, adding its name to the long list of supporters in the poker community for Strazynski’s event. Lastly, Westgate will also be offering free fruit and salad bar to all players throughout the week, ensuring that nobody walks away fully empty-handed.

At the end of the day, Strazynski said he knows a mixed game festival is a risk to run, and as a result, he is going all-in on doing everything he can to “make it special and memorable; something participants would walk away from with amazing memories.” That has the potential added effect of making those who skipped the festival wish they hadn’t and perhaps do so in the future.

Giving Back, Too

The poker community as a whole is a very philanthropic one, maybe more than many realize, and Strazynski also felt a philanthropic element was of the utmost importance for his festival to offer.

“To me, it was particularly important that a festival bearing the Cardplayer Lifestyle name have a charitable component. For years, I’ve always tried my best to highlight the power poker has to raise money for charity, and that trait has just been reinforced by the examples I’ve always seen from Linda [Johnson] and Jan [Fisher], whose dedication to charity knows no bounds.”

The aforementioned Johnson and Fisher, the former a Poker Hall of Famer and the latter a Women in Poker Hall of Famer, will be among those on hand throughout the series providing even more value and insight to the community by hosting a Q&A session on “all things mixed games” on Wednesday, October 6.

Beyond that, poker legends Eli Elezra and Dylan Linde will also be present for the festival, signing copies of their book and donating 100% of proceeds to the Westgate Resorts Foundation. “Tip jars” will also be on hand throughout the room for players to further donate to charity should they wish to, with Westgate and PokerStars both agreeing to match the total amount raised as well.