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- Openly gay poker pro Jason Somerville closing in on 180,000 followers
- Plans to stream live from SCOOP online poker tournament remainder of this week
- Twitch could lead to second poker boom, especially combined with growing acceptance of Bitcoin
- Consistency and time dedication is key to Twitch success, Somerville says
Openly gay poker pro and Twitch social media live streaming phenom Jason Somerville has cracked the 30,000 viewers mark as he attempted to win a SCOOP online tournament.
Somerville, who goes by the handle of JCarver, did manage to finish in 9th place.
He’s now up to over 12 million views and closing in fast on 180,000 followers on the burgeoning streaming platform, our friends at PokerListings.com reports.
Somerville was expected to stream live from SCOOP the remainder of this week.
Twitch is considered somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, catering primarily to video gamers and poker players. In fact, some believe Twitch will lead to a second poker boom, especially combining the growing acceptance of anonymous digital currency Bitcoin (it has become virtually impossible to smoothly move money in and out of online poker sites to and from a number of jurisdictions in recent years).
Brian Crecente of Polygon writes that Twitch “tapped into a generational shift in the way people interact with video games at a time when few realized that shift was happening”.
He added: “The desire by so many to watch others play video games through live video streams was an untapped demand that propelled Twitch's success and launched it onto mobile platforms and two gaming consoles.”
Amazon, which bought Twitch in August 2014 for $970 million in cash, began focusing heavy attention on poker training videos last year. Twitch has the advantage of offering an interactive platform where viewers can post questions via a chat forum and have them answered in real time. Gambling911.com endorsed-Americas Cardroom has benefitted greatly through its own Twitch live streaming, especially during its Sunday Millions tournament.
In an interview with CardPlayer back in March, Somerville celebrated the 10 million viewers milestone (he’s now up to over 12 million).
“I think there are three main components to success in Twitch streaming,” he said. “First is being consistent, for example I live stream seven days a week for six hours a day. People know that they can watch me.
“Secondly I try to be welcoming and engage with my community. There are people who show up in the chat everyday or at least multiple times a week, and that helps create a community. Finally, I think it’s important to have a unique approach that is interesting. In my case I try to not just be educational and informative from a strategy perspective but also just to have fun every single day, win or lose.”
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
