He didn't steal Jamie's viewers, he just won them over with better play, better content and a better attitude. He doesn't get salty when he has a terrible day or on a downswing. He welcomes subs and plebs alike.

Yeah tonkaaa is basically better at just about everything. And what is stapler doing these days? He hasn't been streaming allmost at all lately?

I didn't mean Tonka stole them in a literal sense. I agree with you about the migration.

Jaime has been streaming but not on a regular schedule. He has said at this point he is getting more view on youtube than twitch, so it seems like he is focusing more on creating "content" rather than streaming and poker.

Jamie failed. The whole stream house failed. They're not consistent and can't handle the successes and failures. They're more interested in partying and their chats are offputting because they don't accept everyone. Tonka deserves it. He has the most viewer friendly channel.

Tonkaaa is more entertaining and a better player than Jaime Staples so it completely makes sense he's more popular. I also do not care if he tweeted something politically incorrect or offensive. The guy's hilarious.

He can no more be blamed for monopolizing his Twitch viewership than normal people can be blamed for choosing to eat freshly baked bread over maggoty rotting bread. People have freedom of choice.

Jaywalk: hi jaime, love the stream
Jaywalk: how do you feel about tonka and kmart gobbling up all your viewers?
Jaywalk has been permanently banned from talking in PokerStaples

Lol, all this talk of guys teaming up together, GrindNation, TeamNeverLucky and whatever else, and JCarvs still gets more viewers playing $10 sit n gos in NJ.

Well somerville has built the brand for some years now. Others are where he was like 5 years ago. And allso didnt get anywhere near as many people watching him playing in nj. Prolly back to close 10k when wcoop starts.

As I write,Tonkaa is in 8th place out of nine in the EPT Barcelona 25,000 High Roller.

very well said, and staples is from 2014. Times change, just a matter of time before more likable streamers were to come around.

If you're going to start a 2 page long thread about something that happened to Tonka, you can at least tell us what the heck he actually did in the first place!

nothing. he wrote a drunk tweet that made no sense but wasnt offensive, then deleted it and wrote something like "that last tweet was awful, i know".

Tonkaaaa is jaime 3.0 - is funny and interactive, allows his stream to sweat with him through staking, explains his plays and how he exploits certain spots etc and runs super deep and is never a **** either.

Gets called fat etc and just laughs it off.

Inb4 Twitch poker becomes the Terminator series

He made a nice little twich community allso. When !Tim and Miranda popped up on the stream a while ago people went apesheeet crazy. I think that's one reason he became so succesfull. Easy to relate to a guy who is on the bigger side and was living w/ a roommate grinding online poker. And his friends and oc parents were pretty cool allso. Natural talent to streaming imo.

is this thread not deleted yet...

(bumping instead of new thread)

I've seen the last long, long stretch of videos of him and he seems to be losing at a consistent pace. He even complains about how the bad beats and constant losing is getting to him after so long.

I believe he is a pretty good MTT player (though that in itself is not huge due to all the bad regs) but he overestimates his ability I believe. He doesn't ever take tips on the quality of a play. Says he shouldn't call/raise then says YOLO and does anyways because of some small tell.

I feel he really needs a break and to work on his game. I know MTTs have the lowest correlation between skill and actual results, and he runs super bad, but he's been running so bad for so long you have to wonder if he's even bothering to improve his strat nowadays.

I get streaming is draining. I feel it's hard to do off the table work with tools like solvers and database review when you have all those fans to create content for. I wish I could see his PT/HEM graph. His results, as he admits himself often, are worse as time goes on.

It scares me that someone like him could be (or be turning into) a break even or losing player. He's not dumb but he's had a single strategy and doesn't do the work or put into practice what I see winning cash players do.

Disclaimer: I love the guy and wish him the best. Just worried about his future. Didn't read this thread fully either so I hope it's a good place for my thoughts. I only play cash as I hate the MTT grind for innumerable reasons but I like railing certain people.

Tonkaaaap used to run bad and would still wreck others, making FT on the reg, winning 1-4th place money commonly. For the last long while he just runs even worse, but even poorer for his it seems he has been figured out by many of the regs. His strategy seems easy to counter for the most part lately. That's only my opinion but maybe it's just because I'm more versed in GTO principles than he is. Then again I mostly play 100+ bb deep NLHE or short stack PLO. I only think about what the GTO line is usually so perhaps I'm out of touch.

Fact is he's getting shat on and it makes me sad. He's the best now that Jnandez and Polk are gone. Maybe his sponsorship makes up for it but I'd be surprised if he's making serious dough while bleeding at this rate. He's been blowing through buyins faster than I'd be able to keep up with them.

He seems to be playing stakes above his ability too. No knock to him, but I wonder how he'd preform if he dropped down for a bit, did more off table work and came back strong. Hope he survives.

Jamie Staples seems fake and only cares about his own success and can’t decide what he is ( pro bad player). His stream is very bland and fake “fun”. You can only watch someone drink diet coke and make smoothies so much and walk down a street to a restaraunt. This is 2018 nobody gives a s. Tonkaa appears genuine

LordQuas878, you make some valid points,& I agree with a lot of what you said. Polk was the boss for several reasons, but Tonka is easily the next best. If I'm ever grinding tournaments (somewhat rare because I have a job & dont have 8hrs a day to spare,haha) I like to have either music or a Twitch stream on in the background, & Tonka is a good watch.

He's got a decent amount of charisma, & even when moaning, it's often entertaining.
But I do have some sympathy because, without doubt, he has run like crap in almost all the streams that I've seen. It's rare for me to show sympathy to tourney grinders because most 'em register with 30-40bb & then just hope to be on the end of positive variance. How about registering early & learning to play proper poker so you can run up a stack without always having to relentlessly put your tournament life on the line preflop?!? Some of these guys have no idea how well they're running tbh.

But yeah, I dunno how much longer he can realistically torch through buyins. Until things improve, he should probably stay away from 1k's+ for the most part

good troll in the OP. funny.

Watch Tonka a few times on Twitch. He can be funny and seems good at MTTs. He is really losing a lot over the past 10 months in online poker. I believe he turned into more of a streamer that players poker, than a poker pro who streams. I don't think he has much of an edge over the player field at the stakes he plays. I'm concerned he got very lucky in past years and It went to his head. He does get revenue from Twitch and 888 Poker, but I must think that at some point he has to take action to stop his bank roll from busting. You read and see sad stories all the time of past, "Great" poker players hitting a few big scores, only to see them lose it all. Will Parker follow down that road? I think he will, plus he doesn't stream as frequently these days. Which is costing him money via Twitch. What does he do If he does go broke. has he ever had a real job, and could he even get a real job. Best of luck to Parker and his future.

I probably sound so suspicious responding to a guy with 4 posts who just joined lmao, but this is what I fear. I think Tonkaaa is really entertaining, probably better at MTTs than I am (as I only play Omaha seriously), but I really hope his original big score(s) that brought him to the public space didn't make him overconfident. Or that his viewership don't do the same, as obv positive reinforcement can go a long way.

I also wonder if his edge is kind of screwed due to streaming. Not even by someone sniping his stream - but that he makes plays very similarly in certain positions with certain board textures (NLHE "noob" here full disclosure), but how he plays his draws on certain boards would make him easy to exploit in my mind if I grinded MTTs.

I really hope he does come out right and makes loads. I have nothing but love for the guy even if it comes across as I do not. Most streamers I can't enjoy but I DO like his streams. He does run like ****, and even if that is the norm for MTTs - praying for flips in lots of spots, I worry he might bust totally. I hope he's backed, hope he's not ****ed with makeup, and hope he makes it in the end.

Even if he's not just running bad and has no edge in the fields he plays (which I can't determine as an omaha player to any REAL extent), I still hope he binks the Sunday Million or something. He seems like too good a guy to get ****ed like so many others. I've just seen personally so so many people (and friends) who were very talented cash players, transited to MTTs for whatever reason and just bust there roll w.o realizing they had no edge or the edge they once had (even if it was massive at the time) has disappeared.

Here's hoping for the best, but I'm afraid of what I expect in the end quite honestly. Glad no ones bashing him like Staples (even though he's obv miles and miles worse than Parker) and a real discussion can be had.

Are there are any people playing the same stakes as him who could provide some input? Winning players (tho it's only your word) especially? I'd like to know if he's just the most unlucky bastard ever or if he has an edge. I know the skill to result ratio is brutal with MTTs compared to cash, but I'd like to hear some input from those playing his fields (or playing him). Probably a long shot here...

If he didn't play 1ks, and player stuff like 20-50$ strictly, would it cost him viewers substantially? Would he have a much bigger edge there?

Tonka is one of, if not the funniest streamer to watch! No filter and also very good player! He's not had the best results last 6 months, but downswings happends and he's going to work more on his game (with PIO etc..), he said so on Twitter. My prediction is that he will get some good scores soon and that it turns around, which will probably motivate him a lot to stream more!

I watched some of tonkaaaas stream last night. He was absolutely roasting this one guy at a final table. Then I looked up both of their graphs on 888...
https://i.imgur.com/DZjDi3C.jpg

And your point is what? Tonka plays ~10x higher avs and loses?

Just intresting. I would think a 888 pro would actually be up money playing on that site. Not that many super high buy-in tourneys there either.