Quote:
Originally Posted by Moldran
I said I don't have the personality/knowledge to be a >successful< poker streamer. If you want to stream full-time, you have to earn some money with the streaming.
The reason I have/had viewers is because of my gaming/Twitch history, I have 70k followers and of course many of them watch me for anything I do, including poker.
For poker, people didn't come to my stream because they genuinely enjoy it, they came to make fun about me or laugh about losing days etc. No one of the poker viewers ever donated to my stream, or subscribed to it (all the subscribers are from gaming).
Why do so many people subscribe to other streamers, like JCarver or Staples? Because people GENUINELY enjoy their streams/are being entertained by them, because they feel like they learn a lot in terms of strategy and they want to support them so they can keep streaming full-time. People become fans of them, interact with them on social media, follow them etc.
For me? People don't even follow my stream, they just watch sometimes and laugh. But most will never follow, and even more will never support the stream endeavor.
It's definitely possible to make a living with streaming poker, for example Staples mentioned he got more from Twitch this year than from poker winnings (which is a big number as a well-earning poker pro). If you check his donations listed on his page, his smallest donation is already multiple times bigger than the biggest I have ever received with Poker, and he has 300 times more monthly subscribers from Poker than me (600 vs 2).
I actually earned more from Poker winnings this month than from streaming, which is pretty sad considering I'm a recreational player and I only play 2 tables while I stream.
My poker stream went in the wrong direction since day 1, there has been much more negativity than positive reactions/support. You might not even notice it, because you are either part of it or because the messages get timed out, but chat is constantly spammed with:
* "Omfg where is [Jcarver/Staples], I can't watch this **** anymore!
* This is the worst poker stream I've ever seen, don't know how anyone would sub/donate to this at all.
* Play some 6-max $1000 hypers again to win the losses back.
* [Insert any all-in situation here]: "Worst play."
Not even gonna mention that 99 % of the PMs I received were hate/telling me to kill myself or stop streaming poker.
I would make more money playing off-line 8-tabling some low-stakes SnGs/MTTs, but I love my stream and that's why I went back to gaming (will still stream poker occasionally, maybe once every 2 months).
From a business standpoint I truly believe you are looking at this in the worst way possible. You actually have, the dream setup. You have a gimmick. You have an amazing twitch personality, and people love to watch you lose. You are an average poker player, but you rake in the views that are on par with the pros. You love to shove all-in in so many risky spots, and that creates a fun moment for the immature viewers. You have to feed the trolls. Turn on text to speech, etc. Get saltier when you lose. Learn to love the hate.
Go watch any Hearthstone stream and tell me I'm wrong. Watch Reynad for example. When he loses or misplays people go absolutely wild in his chat and the donations fly in with his text to speech on. He started off as a nobody, and now he averages 15-20k viewers every time. But he started streaming Hearthstone the day Hearthstone came out. Poker is JUST becoming a thing on Twitch. The people who become popular RIGHT NOW are the people that will be the kings 2-3 years from now. Jamiestaples, JCarver, AdrianFenix, etc, all these people will be on top of the Twitch world a few years from now. If Pokerstars ever comes back to the US, you guys will be set for life. The amount of viewership will skyrocket and the market will saturate with poker streamers trying to make it, but you guys will already be at the top.
You should seriously reconsider streaming poker, but that's just my take on it. You are actually in an amazing position. You may be making less money streaming poker than the other games you like to play, but think of it as a long-term investment that will eventually pay off. Maybe even just once in a while to keep your name relevant. But in the end its obviously down to what you want.