Top 3 StickyRice1 Moments

StickyRice1 is an extremely polarizing figure. He's a former Twitch.tv streamer who was partially responsible for the live stream poker revolution the fruits of which we're able to enjoy to this day. The moment when Kai Mcminn decided to swap his usual Counter Strike for the high stakes Bovada cash games marked a very interesting point in the history of online poker.

Even if StickyRice1 is no longer as relevant as he used to be (he got suspended on Twitch.tv for artificially boosting his viewer count with bots) and some of us might dismiss him as a person of questionable character, it's hard to deny the fact that his crazy run at Bovada high stakes made online poker more popular and challenged our notions of what we thought was necessary in order to boost the popularity of poker in social media driven world.

Let's take a look at some of the highlights of Kai's volatile, short-lived yet extremely entertaining poker career.

Epic QQ Hand

This hand perfectly encapsulates the StickyRice1 phenomenon. What he lacked in skill and strategic insight he made up for in unparalleled enthusiasm. Kai wasn't a high-stakes poker expert - far from it - he made a crazy, ill-advised run at Bovada cash game high stakes with very little actual play experience and the fact that he managed to hit an extremely lucky streak allowed him to capture the attention of both curious poker enthusiasts and his core audience that wasn't really familiar with poker.

At the time when other cash games streamers tried to lure viewers in with displays of strategic prowess, Kai provided his lay audience with tons of frantic entertainment. While others tried to appeal to new crowds with merit, StickyRice1 was busy dancing in front of the webcam and creating memes (like the famed "12% baby"). The like to dislike ratio under the video shows how polarizing this approach ended up being, but it's also hard to argue with the view count...

Whether we like it or not the epic QQ hand StickyRice1 played on Bovada became a part of online poker history.

Getting Smacked in the Face During the Live at the Bike Cash Game!

Turns out that the online poker antics displayed by StickyRice1 worked equally "well" in the live poker environment and by "worked well" I mean the fact that Kai managed to create similar amount of chaos and mayhem playing in "Live at the Bike!" cash game as he did playing online at Bovada.

Some us might describe his behavior as irresponsible and juvenile (once again I'd like to point out the like to dislike ratio of the video), we might argue that wearing a horse mask at the table shows lack of respect for the game and other players but just like William Kassouf managed to expose the stale outdated reality of live poker games with his speech play, StickyRice1 did so with his outrageous behavior, albeit in a more severe and controversial manner.

Guest Appearance on Joe Ingram's Poker Life Podcast

This was arguably the most awkward interview in the history of poker interviews. Instead of the insane, frantic, energetic persona poker fans grew to love (or hate) StickyRice1 for, Joe Ingram had to deal with someone who - either due to the stage fright or driven by the need to troll everyone - refused to give him much. All in all, instead of meme filled, over the top action displayed by Kai in online and live games, the Joe Ingram podcast felt more like pulling teeth.

StickyRice1 gave Joe Ingram very little to work with. You know it's bad when thirty minutes into the interview the most exciting thing you've learned about the guest is the fact that he doesn't really know how to use the image scanner and requires the assistance of his 'smart friends' in order to so.

This new, unexpected dynamic perplexed fans even more than Kai's table antics and the awkwardness, combined with occasional glimpses of madness (outrageous, offhand claims about sexual encounters, wearing a horse mask etc.) made the StickyRice1 phenomena even more astonishing. The poker world may never be the same again.