From the Commentary Booth to the Betsafe Livestream – A Familiar Face Returns for The Festival Weekend
The Festival Series Weekend, powered by Betsafe, is coming close now! Online satellites are running daily, and every week you can win a package online as well! Besides the online action, there are also several live qualifiers available at the Chesterfield Poker Club. Let's meet up with our host of our Twitch Channel for these online satellites!
Long-time poker fans might recognize him from the commentary days of the Cash Game Festival, and now, he's making a return — this time behind the mic for the live-streamed satellites leading up to The Festival Weekend, powered by Betsafe. We caught up with him to talk about reconnecting with poker through an unexpected meetup at Chesterfield Poker Club, his current journey in the tech world, and what it’s like diving back into the poker scene through one of the most exciting grassroots series in Europe.
It does not matter if you have seen him on stream or remember his voice of the golden days of the Cash Game Festival, Brandon Allen is a great guy to listen to!
- The Festival Weekend, powered by Betsafe, will be held in Tallinn from April 23-26 at the Chesterfield Poker Club. We are happy to have you on board for streaming the online satellites on our official Twitch Channel. How did that all come to plan?
- We randomly got seated next to each other at one of the tournaments at Chesterfield Poker Club, and of course, we spoke about many things both past and future. And ended up with him mentioning this opportunity and here we are.
- You’ve been around in poker for a while. We know you from commentating back in the days. What keeps you busy these days?
- These days I am working in IT and working towards becoming an Engineer at Wise, and recreationally play poker from time to time online and at Chesterfield Poker Club with some friends of mine.
- Do you play poker often yourself? What’s the story behind that? How did you come in touch with poker in the first place?
- I was introduced to poker in college, around 2002. Started playing online in 2003 and made my first trip to Las Vegas to go to the 2005 WSOP, my roommate was playing a 1k event while I played lots of cash games. Played online until Black Friday where I then started playing a weekly game with friends for many years, and got started playing online a bit again after moving to Europe where it was actually legal to play.
- Have you ever been to The Festival Series events before? Or are you planning to come visit us this year on any of the stops besides Tallinn? What do you do think about mixed games and the hospitality events we have?
- This will be my first Festival Series. I definitely plan on checking out more than just the main event, but that will be my main focus.
- You were doing commentary at the time of the Cash Game Festival right? There was another top guy called Henry Kilbane. He is at the Triton Series now. Is that something you ever had in your mind to do as well? How do you think Henry is doing it so far for himself?
- Funny story about that, I've had the pleasure of commentating with Henry a couple of times when he was “stopping in” on my live stream for Cash Game Festival. He then took over for me - when I stepped away from it to start my family. Not able to travel so regularly it wasn't possible for me. I would like to think, in an alternate universe where I stayed and joined forces with Henry, would have launched us both to Triton. Maybe one day I’ll get lucky enough to host with Henry again.
- You are going to stream on several occasions the qualifiers for The Festival Weekend on iPoker client of Betsafe. What do you think about the fields so far and how is the atmosphere during the streams?
- The first week the fields were small but strong. I did bust quite early on the 5.50 final table but managed a nail-biting 3rd place for the 750 euro package. I hope to take it down this week unless EstonianWeirdo is coming back for a 2nd bullet!
This interview with Brandon Allen was taken before the last package qualifier. Check out the below video and see what happened!
