Congrats to Kevin but an unlikely choice on the face of it. Kevin's lifetime profit on Pokerstars (Garlicxtoast) currently stands at $4,471.

IMO kevin brings some entertainment value.
but his poker sauce is weak.
and his constant mentioning of BIG BROTHER is pathetic -- so 2005. I cringe every time.

That's 5 members of Team Online from Canada, when Russia's only got two, and Germany only has one.

does anyone know what you actually get for being team online?

why the hate he nice person and he isnt pro player he is low stakes player

Good move by Pokerstars. Kevin's not the best poker player but his personality, looks and dedication to streaming on Twitch were the key reasons he got PS pro status. One of the most entertaining poker streamers by far next to Jaime and Jcarver. I can see Kevin bringing in a ton of new females to Poker.

He shouldn't have got pro status as he's not a pro player. If he's got sponsorship for Twitch then he should be called a Pokerstars Twitch partner. Ditto Jaime Staples.

Yeah I also dont like the phenomenon that poker sites turns people into poker pros even tho these people couldn't make a living of their poker results.

I would much rather see that the sites rewards good players or at least dont call entertainers poker pros. So I agree with Nelly there.

Um, how?

Imo kevmart and stapler are both KappaPros. They don't make much money playing the game but are for sure +ev to pokerstars. Both of them appeal to the fun player community and might deposit some money to the poker community.

Kevin and Jamie I imagine are both +EV with what they are doing. Game selection is everything, for most of us it is playing games that you make money in, for these guys it is a little different. If they can more than make up more than what they lose in the games with twitch revenue and the Pokerstars contract why not play in that game?

Good for him. But do you not have to b supernova to b considered for team pro??

they broke that agreement for kevin afaik

Congrats to him but seems he's pretty lucky to get this.

cool thing about this is that he knows hes a novice, and he's not trying to hype his game up. He's aware of whats going on.

And for carver allso.

Team Online and Team Pro are two different things.

https://www.pokerstars.uk/team-poker...am-online-faq/

Had no idea there are two teams. My bad then.

"Team PokerStars Pro Online is a group of brand ambassadors, selected entirely from Supernova VIPs. They have all demonstrated the ability to earn a living playing at PokerStars, and are passionate about the game and the online poker community."


That's why there should be a new designation for Twitch guys like Kevin Martin and Jaime Staples. They haven't demonstrated an ability to earn a living playing at Pokerstars. The bulk of their income is from Twitch subs, donations, ads etc.

I agree with you, they should take the Supernova bit out but there is also this on the same page:-

Martin and Jamie fit into this category perfectly. PS, along with other poker sites, are using twitch as a method to get new people into teh game and having established streamers on the roster is only going to help that.

Why do you care where their money comes from? There were some losing players in the Full tilt days that were only profitable from the sponsorship.

Interesting piece over at Poker Update: http://www.pokerupdate.com/poker-opi...okerstars-pro/

Hollreiser said the twitch sponsorships are still in test mode, and that PS is giving the streams a chance to grow, but that so far the results haven't been that noteworthy:

He also said PS plans to pare down their roster of pros.

So randoms are watching Staples and Martins streams and be like Ohh well if that pro cant make any money then how can I? I'll just stick to watching this and playing with my buddies homegames.

This was a pretty obvious in, what do you except when your roommate is Jamie Staples...

I've actually watched Kevin's stream far more than I would like to admit and I don't really get it. This announcement came during SCOOP and I don't think he played a single SCOOP event. Weird, very FTP'esc when they had dude likes Bruce Buffer as a red pro.

I think Kevin and Jaime have found a niche and are really trying to exploit it to the fullest extent. They aren't necessarily committed to the game of poker as they are to Twitch. Example being they are only going to WSOP for Colossus and the Main. IMO, a mistake because they are probably both +EV vs the field in low/mid live events in Vegas this summer.

To be fair, Tonka has had way more success on Twitch and lifetime plus more average views recently. Probably way more deserving of being a member of PS Team Online.