The Festival Meets Online Qualifier Erik Hamre
With The Festival Series, we try to keep the level of enjoyment to a maximum during our live events. Players from all over Europe, and even from other continents, come to our Festival Series to play poker first and foremost, but also to have a taste of the great atmosphere and everything that the location of the festival brings along in terms of sightseeing and tasting a different culture. Poker has gained popularity in every single country in the world, but most players have not yet travelled for the passion they enjoy outside their busy lives. With online satellites, we not only aim to expand their horizon, but we also want to give players an opportunity to make memories which would not easily be forgotten. Erik Hamre from Norway is a great example of a poker player who enjoys qualifying himself online for such live events, and we had the pleasure of talking to him, to get to know everything behind him as a person.
Melvin TF: Hi Erik, recently you won a package to one of our Festivals through one of our online partners Coolbet. We have seen you passing by in results lately during the Coolbet Open quite often, which gave us the idea of talking to this great personality of Norway! Poker can be a very enjoyable world to be in, what made you play poker in the first place?
Erik Hamre: ‘’Hi Melvin, nice to meet you! My main project for many years has been studying how we learn and get good at skills. After studying psychology for 4 years, I started a project where I travelled the world to learn different skills (salsa dancing, Spanish, yoga, ultimate frisbee, drawing, piano, kizomba, Thai massage, Portuguese and now also poker). So, my interest in poker lies in how we learn it and get good in the shortest amount of time(for poker this is still 100s-1000s of hours though). Making good decisions rather than focusing on the result is one of the things I like the most about poker. Although it's nice to win every now and then, which should also happen every now and then.’’
Melvin TF: You have visited us twice now this year already, and will join us in Bratislava as well. Seems you perfectly enjoy yourself at the tables of The Festival Series!
Erik Hamre: ‘’I went to The Festival Nottingham at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club, and Malta at the Portomaso Casino in St. Julians this year. I like to visit such series because they have a wide variety of games (some that I don't know very well, but will try out anyway😊). Also, the atmosphere is really good with friendly people and a lot of fun side hospitality activities.’’
Melvin TF: Poker is one of the greatest card games around. As with any other card game, it requires skill and if you want to succeed in poker, improving yourself is an important subject of it. What do you think about nowadays poker?
Erik Hamre: ‘’I think it's super interesting with all the details that go into how to improve. I love watching live event coverage to see how the best players in the world play (especially in mixed-game events, but NLH can be super fascinating to watch at the highest level). For live events, I like events such as The Festival and the Coolbet Open which focus a lot on the social part of it and bring the community together.’’
Melvin TF: One of our online partners, Coolbet, who provides online satellites daily, and a weekly final on Wednesdays, is your domain when you are at home.
Erik Hamre: ‘’I think Coolbet has a lot of good tournaments, especially those that are only for Coolbet players themselves, as you get to play people you know over and over. For satellites to The Festival Series, I think they are good, as you can qualify already through low buy-in pre-satellites to the weekly final.’’
Melvin TF: Do you travel a lot for poker? What is important to you when you plan such a trip?
Erik Hamre: ‘’I travelled like 5 times for poker this year. But before this year, I had only played one time live!
Here are some of the important factors, which I take into consideration when booking such a trip:
- Easily reachable travel destination
- Good food!
- Friendly atmosphere
It’s all much more easy when previous experiences have been positive as well. And that is the case for The Festival Series, and the city of Bratislava as well with Banco Casino, which seems to deliver to the players’ expectations by organizing so many great events.’’
Schedule Coolbet Qualifiers for The Festival Bratislava:
| Day | Time | Buy-in | GTD Prize Pool |
| Daily | 21:00 CET | €5 | 1x €50 ticket |
| Every Wednesday | 18:00 CET | €3 | 1x €50 ticket |
| Every Wednesday | 19:30 CET | €50 | 1x €1,600 Package The Festival Series Bratislava |
