Back in May, Akash Mazumdat entered a $109 buy-in satellite at Intertops Poker. The prize on offer was a package to the Poker´em Festival Main Event in Velden, Austria, later this month. Akash won the satellite and, in an interview with journalist Rikard Aberg, explained why he hopes history repeats itself in Austria.
In 2015, Akash Mazumdat – a health insurance salesman originally from Connecticut – took down the TKPT Main Event in St Maarten for $33,930 after winning a package to the event in a $109 satellite at Intertops Poker. Although Akash had enjoyed modest success in previous live poker events, this was the victory that spring-boarded his live poker career, and he returned to St Maarten twelve months later to take down the TKPT Main Event for the second year in a row!
Due to moving and starting a new job, Akash has not had much time to play in live poker events this year. However, this weekend he will fly out to Velden in Austria to play in the Poker´em Festival Main Event, where the estimated prize pool is €500,000. In a recent interview with journalist Rikard Aberg, Akash described playing the satellite, how he intends to extend his trip to do some sightseeing around Europe, and how he plans to win another event for which he has qualified at Intertops Poker.
About the Poker´em Poker Festival
The Poker´em Poker Festival has been hosted annually at the stunning Casino Velden in Austria since 2014. Drawing players from all over Europe (and one or two from the U.S.), the Festival consists of six Championship events and culminates with the €2,700 buy-in Poker´em Main Event. Last year´s Main Event attracted 236 players for a prize pool of €590,000 and was won by Swiss player Simon Boss – for whom history was repeating itself. Boss also won the same event in 2015.
Intertops Poker has supported the Festival by hosting satellites for the past four years. Typically the qualifying process starts off with sub-satellite qualifiers with buy-ins of $3.30 and finishes with the $109 buy-in Final. This year, in addition to winning the €2,700 buy-in for the Poker´em Festival Main Event, Akash also won accommodation for him and his partner at a nearby hotel, and a contribution towards his travelling expenses. No doubt we will hear more if he returns from Austria victorious!
More Tournaments Added for Stay-at-Home Players
Recently Intertops Poker has been adding more tournaments for stay-at-home players. This month the site has already hosted special [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/intertops-poker-announces-independence-day-event/”]Independence Day[/geolink] and [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/heads-will-roll-in-intertops-bastille-bounty-event/”]Bastille Day[/geolink] tournaments and extended its Sundowner Tournaments from two events a night to three events a night. Now the site has announced another commemorative tournament for tomorrow night (Friday) and a fourth Sundowner Tournament to fill a gap in the current schedule.
Tomorrow night´s “Apollo 11 Freezeout” tournament commemorates the first manned landing on the moon in 1969. Compared to the Poker´em Festival Main Event, the tournament has a modest buy-in of $3.30 and a guaranteed prize pool of just $200. Nonetheless, a “stone-cold freezeout” is a welcome change from the frequent re-buy and add-on tournaments peppering the schedule. The tournament gets underway at 9:10pm (ET) and has a late registration period of ninety minutes.
The new event in the Sundowner Tournament schedule is the “Stockholm Sundowner”. This event follows the same format as the site´s existing Sundowner events ($16.50 buy-in, 3,000 starting chips, ten minute levels, re-buys and add-ons, $1000 guarantee) and is timed to coincide with the time the sun will be going down in Stockholm – 2:05pm ET / 8:05pm CEST. Coincidently, that´s around the same time the sun will be going down in Velden. Is that an omen for history repeating itself in Austria?
