Run It Up Reno HYPE

In little over a week from now, the 6-day RunItUp! Reno Festival will start at the Peppermill Resort Spa in Nevada’s ‘Biggest Little City in the World’, and host Jason Somerville has promised it is going to be absolutely awesome.

The king of Twitch live poker-streaming, who plays the name jcarverpoker, has organised a highly interesting event, with poker tournaments, UFC workshops and a ‘Survivor’ TV-viewing morning amongst others.

With about 100 players flying in, and many locals expected besides, Somerville says

Somerville’s excitement mirrors his Twitch broadcasts, which see him playing and commenting on events simultaneously, allowing for interaction with his 138,740 followers as he plays events such as the recent WCOOP where he cashed 8 times from his 42 events for almost $30k profit.

His popularity is such that the upcoming Reno festival – which runs from the 20th-26th October – has seen the likes of UFC fighters T.J. Dillashaw and Martin Kampmann sign up for morning work-outs (Somerville is a huge UFC fan) and also a viewing party with Survivor champions Boston Rob Mariano and Tyson Apostol, who appeared in the reality TV show which maroons a group of strangers in an isolated location, where they must provide food, water, fire, and shelter for themselves, while competing in challenges to earn rewards.

The RunItUp! Reno Festival is unlikely to see much in the way of isolation, however, as Somerville has planned a series of parties, scavenger hunts and nightclub visits to intersperse the poker events.

The biggest of these - the $100,000 guaranteed Main Event, with a $565 buy-in - kicks off on Friday 23rd with day 1, which follows several chances to satellite into the Main Event.

Day 2 is on the Saturday and the Final table on the Sunday will be streamed live on Twitch with Somerville providing his usual enthralling commentary on proceedings.

Somerville is also at pains to point out that NHLE is not the only focus of the festival. "One of the things we're doing is called Stud Club one night, where we're just going to hang out and play stud cash games all night,” reminiscing on the WCOOP final table he reached in the $1,000 buy-in stud hi-low event.

With a peak of 27,000 viewers during this particular stream, Somerville noted there has not been that many people watching stud poker since it aired on ESPN 10 years ago. That's the power of the stream.

my sincere gratitude to everyone for checking out the show, the kind messages, and all the love and support. next stop: runitupreno baby!

— Jason Somerville (@JasonSomerville) October 11, 2015

Somerville’s top-ranked poker streaming life is a marked change from where he was only a few years ago.

His enthusiasm is boundless, and his final words on his upcoming Reno tournament says it all. "It's really going to be a poker experience unlike anything that you and I have ever been to before!"