Live Reporting

This week's action takes place at a new venue for us, Jackpot Junction in Morton, Minnesota. Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel sits just south of Morton, on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation along the Minnesota River. It is owned and operated by the Lower Sioux Indian Community, and it holds a piece of state history: it opened as a bingo hall in 1984 and became the first casino in Minnesota. 

Today the property has a 379-room hotel, an RV park, and over 1,000 slot machines and table games. This week the poker moves upstairs to the Grand Eagle Ballroom, where three Main Event flights ($640 buy-in), three super satellites, and a $250 Second Chance event on Sunday at noon. Two things to know before you walk in. Every player needs a Jackpot Junction players card, so stop at the Rewards Club before you head to registration. And every new player gets $10 in free play and $10 in match play, just for signing up.

The Bellagio has been supporting the mixed game community for decades and is currently the spot for larger fixed-limit games in Vegas. It's where the biggest mixed games in the world have been dealt, where stud and draw players find a game when they can't find one anywhere else, and where a lineup of eight different games on one table doesn't get a second look from the floor. 

Some poker rooms tolerate mixed games. The Bellagio has built a reputation on them, with dealers who know the games and a floor that knows how to run them. For a festival made for players who love everything but holdem, it's hard to imagine a better home. The Mixed Game Festival is lucky to have the support of a card room this good. And with the Bellagio Fall Classic starting Thursday, the room is giving players plenty of reasons to stay all week.

The generous donation of food and beverage, swag, and multiple $1,100 tournament seats to give away during the festival is a strong sign of the room's commitment to mixed game poker in Las Vegas for decades to come!

Congratulations to our seat winner for today, Patrick Moulder from Las Vegas. Moulder won an $1,100 seat in the upcoming Bellagio Fall Classic event with a $100,000 guarantee simply for playing in the Mixed Games Festival today. The seats are a generous donation from The Bellagio to support mixed games and the Mixed Games Festival. There is at least one more seat to be given away, likely tomorrow during the mixed triple draw event.

Cards are in the air at the Bellagio, and the Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Game Festival is officially underway for the 15th time. The festival runs October 5th through the 9th and is built for anyone who loves learning new forms of poker.

The goal has always been to create a fun-loving community of mixed game players, and it shows. On top of the tournaments, there's free candy and snacks, a pizza party, free shirts and other giveaways, book signings, and poker celebrities dropping by throughout the week. 

Today's big giveaway is an $1,100 seat to an event at the Bellagio Fall Classic this week. With four tournament tables and two cash game tables, the value of just this one giveaway is huge for the players!

Today's event is the $300 TORSE, which rotates through five games: 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Stud Eight-Or-Better.  

New to mixed games? Daily $4/8 and $6/12 mixed cash games start at noon, and these lower stakes tables are a great way to learn games you've never played. Players also get free parking with three hours of cash play or one tournament entry. Two more seats to the $1,100 Bellagio Fall Classic, which has a $100,000 guarantee, are also being given away over the next few days so it pays to keep showing up. Thanks to festival sponsors Pokercoaching.com, RunGoodGear, Faded Spade Playing Cards, D&B Poker Publishing and BetMGM Poker.

Tomorrow's tournament will be a mixed triple-draw event and we expect a nice field for that one. You can learn more about the mixed games festival on the CardPlayer Lifestyle Site.