The Pros Are Jumping on Twitch: Get In On the Ground Floor

April 30th, 2015 by JTringer I recently wrote about a brand new poker streaming platform that is based on Twitch TV. In that post, I predicted some pretty crazy results, and so far, they’ve not only been met, but exceeded. Seriously, this is a chance to see exactly how a pro plays in real time without any holding back. It’s the best educational opportunity for a poker player that has existed online, and at least for now, it’s free. Featured Streamer: Daniel Negreanu Heard of Daniel Negreanu before? The guy who’s been near the top of the player of the year leaderboard for over the last decade. He’s one of the few pros who have successfully transitioned from high stakes live games to high stakes online games. He’s not afraid to try something new. Recently, he created his own stream on Twitch so that his fans could watch him as he plays on PokerStars. Not surprisingly, it quickly became one of the most popular streams, with 150,000 viewers and over 4,000 subscribers in his first week alone. Just a week later, he had over 200,000 viewers and more than 14,000 subscribers. One of his sessions consisted of playing $400/$800 8-game. Even if you’re not familiar with that type of poker, the large wins and losses are still fascinating, and you get a little insight into how Daniel approaches the game. During this one session in particular, he won right about $50,000 – not too shabby. Who Else is On Twitch? New pros are hopping on every day, so Twitch is looking better and better every day. Right now, the most popular poker channel is Jason Somerville, who streams both omaha and no limit hold’em games. Somerville is a professional player who has also won a WSOP bracelet. He’s an amazing player and streams 7 days a week. He currently has over 95,000 subscribers. One of the best things about Twitch right now is that you get to watch many professionals who aren’t big names. For example, Alex KP is a professional out of Denmark who focuses on Omaha. He has a solid 4,000 subscriber count and streams some really fascinating play. Twitch is an awesome platform for both poker entertainment and education. Don’t be afraid to look beyond just the most popular streamers. Try to find players that you like and that play the games you like to play the most. September 21st, 2010 Nits all over the world rejoiced today on the news that Harrah’s, owners and operators of the World Series of Poker, will cough up an extra $100 to anyone who redeemed a free $15 Birthday Cash coupon at any of the company’s properties. The reason for their added generosity stems from a class action lawsuit filed by Debra Smerling against the company in 2003. Smerling alleged that after the clock struck midnight on her birthday on August 10th, she tried to redeem her free $15 coupon at Harrah’s Atlantic City but was denied by the property who told her that their new casino day did not start until 8:00 am. Not wanting to wait around eight hours for a free $15, Smerling left the property and instead chose to spend the next seven years fighting the company in court for not publishing anything on her Birthday Cash coupon that defined their gaming day hours. As a result of this lawsuit, some 80,000 Total Rewards members, Harrah’s loyalty-based member program, will receive an additional $100 as compensation for any troubles they might have encountered when redeeming their $15 Birthday Cash coupon. This penalty was passed down by the New Jersey Truth in Consumer Contract Warranty and Notice Act. An additional 270,000 Total Rewards members who received a $15 Birthday Cash coupon but opted not to redeem it will receive notices of this lawsuit telling them that if they attempted to redeem their coupon and were denied, they can file a separate lawsuit against Harrah’s.