Twitch: Who Is Crushing/Suffering

Online poker may be on a downswing but on the popular gaming streaming platform Twitch, the game is definitely trending. Long gone are the days when you had to scroll all the way down to find the Poker Twitch channel where usually there were just a several streamers trying to break through. Now the channel is constantly in the top 20 and even climbed to the top 10 on many occasions.

More and more online poker grinders are embracing the new trend and go live in their attempt to build a steady fanbase. And why not, attract new players who can revitalize the game online and reverse the trend. Grinders like Doug Polk, Parker Talbot or Bryan Paris. Grinders with great potential who can reach the top if they can continue their awesome live streams. But can they dethrone the ultimate Poker Twitch boss in Jason Somerville? And can some other players who have been suffering like Jaime Staples bounce back and regain confidence?

Of course, we at PokerTube can only assume yet we can definitely tell you who is trending and is worth watching as of late and who is losing momentum and might need help from the poker audience in order to get back on track.

Here’s our exclusive list:

King Of The Hil

---

Jason ‘Jcaverpoker’ Somerville

To no one’s surprise, Jason Somerville is first in our Poker Twitch list. No matter the season, the time of the day and night, who else is live, whenever Somerville starts streaming, he becomes an instant hit. And momentarily, nobody can really touch him.

He’s the guy that started all this streaming frenzy, the Godfather of the Poker Twitch channel. He joined the platform in early 2012, long before anyone took the trend seriously and now, as we stand, he’s the only poker streamer who is in the top 1,000 by both followers and channel views, according to SocialBlade.com. He’s 362nd in the followers list and 366th worldwide in the channel views list. As an average, around 100 users start following him on a daily basis with his streams amassing over 21,000 views per day. And to get an idea of how far the other poker streamers are, Jaime Staples who is the next in line, gets half of Somerville’s followers per day and around 8,500 views per day.

So even after all this time, Jcarver is still crushing/trending on the Twitch Poker channel thanks to his dedication and commitment to promote poker among gamers and of course thanks to some awesome content. Content like this video starring Daniel Negreanu and a review of this year’s WCOOP HORSE Championship.

Watch live video from on www.twitch.tv

Crushing: Doug Polk

Since deciding to go mainstream, Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk has been on a tear trending on most social platforms. Seeing Somerville’s success on Twitch, he realized the potential of live streaming and decided to join the party. He signed up roughly ten months ago but since then, he has played the highest stakes in front of the viewers and has set some pretty interesting records. In fact, he broke the largest real money win record in Twitch history not once but twice: the first time earlier this year when he won the Kilimanjaro event in the PokerStars Mountain Series and the second time, a few weeks back when he won the WCOOP High Roller. During his last big tournament win, he also attracted thousands of viewers which gave him the second place all-time on Twitch poker channel behind only Jason Somerville. A sign that Polk might actually be the one who could dethrone Jcarverpoker.

And if you want some other signs, how about these stats: 171 daily followers on average and almost 20,000 views per day. Yes he may be on a serious heater, but watch out Jason, ‘cause Doug is gaining ground fast. And we’ve seen what a Twitch upswing can do, ending Polk’s long downswing.

Next for WCGRider is the continuation of his $100 to $10,000 bankroll challenge that could attract even more audience for his channel. Still, he will resume the challenge next month so don’t hold your breath just yet.

Suffering: Andre ‘aicombrapoker’ Coimbra

And since we talked about bankroll challenge, let’s also mention Andre Coimbra, the former Magic - The Gathering world champion and the one who tried to turn a $100 bill into $100,000 three years ago. He didn’t make but still, he went as far as collecting around $70,000. Earlier this year, he had another challenge - investing $10 in poker and getting back $1,000. He achieved that feat and went on to beat the next level - from $1k to $10k.

Unfortunately, for the last three months, nothing happened. He stopped his challenge abruptly and his poker streamings altogether focusing more on the game he made him famous before picking up poker. We don’t know why, maybe he has lost his motivation or maybe he didn’t have that much time to focus on the challenge, but we can say he is suffering... on Twitch of course.

Because of the $10 to $1k challenge, he made quite a leap in both followers and views category, his fanbase went from around 1,500 followers in January of 2016 to over 6,000 in just three months. Now, Coimbra stands at over 8,600 but he has been on a flat line since the last time he streamed a poker session. It’s really a pity as his sessions are instructive and engaging and with those kind of challenges, he could definitely attract more gamers, encourage them to give poker a try.

Crushing: Parker ‘tonkaaaaP’ Talbot

Ten months ago, Parker Talbot joined Twitch in an attempt to stay motivated and create an additional source of income. Couple of months later, he already had over 10,000 followers and an exclusive interview published here on PokerTube. And in case his real name doesn’t ring a bell, let’s just add his Twitch username: ‘tonkaaaaP.’ That’s right, the fun to watch who plays the highest tournaments in online poker on Twitch, tonkaaaa. Since his first stream, in January of 2016, he has built a big fanbase, worth over 36,000 followers. Moreover, his videos have amassed almost 2.5 million views and those numbers are rapidly growing: on average, 61 users start following him per day and his streams get over 12,000 views.

Like Polk’s, his Twitch graph shows a heater but can he reach the very top and threaten Somerville? Well, with plays like the one below, that could never be an option:

Of course, we’re just joking since Talbot’s play there - folding cowboys preflop - was a misclick. But that’s what happens when you stream long hours, try to explain what are you doing to your audience and atop of it all, play with the best poker players in the world. And if he keeps this up - obviously we’re not referring to folding pocket Kings but to him crushing Poker Twitch - Somerville will be in for a fight in the next year or so to keep his crown.

Suffering: Jaime ‘PokerStaples’ Staples

Talbot’s good friend, Jaime Staples is on the other side of the fence these days. Staples was one of the first poker players after Somerville to join the Twitch party in 2014 and since then, he has steadily moved up to the point that he could have very well entered the top 1,000 alongside Jcarver.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. More and more high rollers like ‘tonkaaaa’ and ‘WCGRider’ joined Twitch and stole Staples’ spotlight. Not to mention the viewbotting scandal. As a result, less and less user started following him, the views dropped down and Jaime lost his motivation. He extensively explained his state of mind in a video posted a couple of months ago:

He admitted being depressed because of the way poker and Twitch went in 2016. He is on a major poker downswing and his Twitch lifeline is… well flat. He even let his ego aside and told his fanbase that many of his followers turned to Doug Polk or tonkaaaa for ‘good reasons’ - better explaining the strategy behind the poker decisions.

Nevertheless, Jaime is still the closest to Jcarver on Twitch with his over 69,000 followers and 4.5 million views. And that number could climb even more since the Staples brothers - Jaime and Matt - along with their friends Jeff Gross and Kevin Martin are part of a Poker Marathon for charity challenge. For seven days, they will play in shifts 24 hours per day, streaming the whole time on Twitch and donating their winnings for The Michael Phelps Foundation.

Poker Marathon for Charity | #SHMarathon (Day 1), LIVE NOW on https://t.co/7U6dsBoxxepic.twitter.com/rGWCw4dxi5

— Jeff Gross (@JeffGrossPoker) October 9, 2016

How’s that for a boost in viewership?

Crushing?? Partypoker

We don’t know yet but it could happen. Not too long ago, rumors emerged that PokerStars actually provided their top Twitch streamers their bankroll only to play on their platform. Well, it seems PartyPoker made a move to promote its software the popular streaming site.

The poker operator launched the PartypokerTV channel just a few days ago and signed Beata “Wild Hungarian” Jambrik who could be seen on Twitch playing a lot of Spin & Go’s. She’s far from being a crusher but if we add several names into the mix like Jackie Glazier, Patrick Leonard, Adam “IT5PAYDAY” Neal and Natalia “N4talB” Breviglieri, then PartyPokerTV might be onto something.

Suffering?? Global Poker League

We cannot say the GPL is officially suffering on Twitch but after a very fast start, in spring, the GPL Twitch channel is on beginning of a downswing. In just one month, the GPL had over 10,000 followers yet in the next five months or so, only 6,000 more followed the channel.

In the first month, GPL was trending and was constantly at the top but as time went on and with the Cube more or less a failure, the live streaming had less and less viewers. Now, the channel is eclipsed by the high rollers and good thing PokerStars just bailed out Alex Dreyfus. Since PokerStars Twitch channel is at the top with almost 60,000 followers, the most popular online room in the world might also bail out the GPL Twitch channel and revive it. Till then though, we can safely add GPL to our suffering category.

Who else is suffering in your opinion? Who would you add in our exclusive Twitch list above? What channel do you watch fondly? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.