Live Streaming Poker on Twitch 1,000 Hours in 125 Days Pays Off

Dedication to grinding poker action reached a new level this past weekend when Arlie Shaban completed 1,000 hours in 125 consecutive days, all while streaming on the popular Twitch.tv platform.

That's an average of eight hours per day that began on Nov. 6, 2017 and finally ended on March 10, 2018. The following tweet from the man himself says it all:

So who is Arlie Shaban and what prompted him to attempt and conquer this insane feat? Canadians may know him as a contestant on Big Brother Canada in 2014. The rest of the world likely knew nothing about him, but we do now.

It was Shaban's appearance on the reality TV show where the poker bug likely bit him, as he rubbed elbows with fellow contestant Kevin Martin, the PokerStars ambassador and Twitch streamer and Big Brother Canada champion of last year during his second appearance as a houseguest.

Here is Shaban introducing himself just prior to entering the Big Brother Canada house in 2014.

Fast forward four years and gone is the clean cut look that may have been appealing for reality television. In its stead is long-ish hair and a scraggly beard, which is much more synonymous with playing online poker for long hours.

That marathon poker playing led to the slow disintegration of healthy eating and exercise habits. Shaban provided his followers with a timeline via social media:

The more than 600 bottles of water consumed by Shaban over the 4-plus months of poker grinding and Twitch streaming were collected and kept by the Canadian. Watch how he has fun with all the empty bottles in the video below:

Shaban had around 100 Twitch followers when he began his journey and has almost 7,000 subscribers now. He kept detailed notes of his progress with regard to viewership and shared his findings on Twitter:

His online poker accomplishments have not gone unnoticed by the industry, as both the GG Network and PokerStars came calling regarding ambassador duties. The latter even produced a tribute video when Shaban's goal was reached and included $250 in cash and tournament tickets.

Congratulations Arlie Shaban on setting out to do something pretty cool and following through. Well done!