I am older and don't get into the social media stars and influencers as much, but I am relatively familiar with most of them. I always liked Keating the most. He seemed more connected to reality and more mature in the personal and business sense. I also liked that he was there to have a good time and mix it up since the money did not affect him all that much. However, after listening to that short audio take, I don't know what to think lol. He came across super cringey and sounded like an entitled child. For supposedly being such a smart and good business man, he sure dropped the ball in this instance. It is not even the fact that he felt he should get a stake, it is the way he handled it and basically suckered punched Ryan in live time. That stuff should be handled behind the scenes and even if you don't get what you want, have some class and dignity for the other person negotiating with you. Nothing good ever comes from that and very rarely will that get you what you want when you treat other people that way.

That was as sloppy and unprofessional as you can handle a situation imo. He came across about as bad as you can look. Grow up and get a clue ffs.

It feels like the aloof and chill Alan Keating was an act and the real one came out here. This is what poker has turned into. The Dwan era was all about who could rise to be the best but now with economies getting worse and poker whales dying off the real weasel crybaby stuff comes out more. I am not even just talking about Alan here, the fish in local games act the same way.

"I am such a donator that it makes me the most important one in the room, listen to me whine and cave into my every demand".

Games revolved around fish. They should be catered to.

Forgetting Keating-as you move up in stakes even to just 5/10 nl there are less and less people who can afford to lose. The people who do lose need to get something for their money. Way too many regs and pros don't realize this so a lot of those losing players just play private games or play pit games instead (and yes some stop gambling altogether) where they get something for their money.

Casinos don't say "can you believe these people dumping all this money in games they can't win expect something in return?" They do the exact opposite.

He's probably just broke

I guess I don’t understand the thinking from their point of view. “I’m a bad player but I have $$$ and time to kill so I’ll go and drop $100,000 and then they should give me something.”

In a live casino game what are they supposed to get and from whom? I get how poker pros have a responsibility to try and keep the games fun and a pleasant experience for recs but that doesn’t seem to be what you are talking about.

They get rakeback from the casinos. 20-40% is a number I see thrown around a lot. Comps. Free villa, tickets to a fight, tickets to a show, flights, bottles, parties w/e.

Not likely. According to Nik Airball (I think) he's a big winner in his own home game. Not sure if that reflects more badly on the integrity of the game or the quality of the opposition.

Keating has embarrassed himself with his churlish behaviour, not long after letting down his fans on HCL - where he is by far the most popular player - by not playing in the million dollar game.

Casino comp the **** out of whales.
Trump would get mad when someone won at his casinos. He didn't get it either, that ****er failed biggly!
I'm sorry, but you need to keep the whales around and happy. Don't slaughter the sheep my man.

Yeah I get that but to play in pits and stuff like that.

Borg said the pros and recs need to realize fish need to be paid or else they will lose them to pits. But the casino wants them in the pits

I personally don't get how gambling and losing money is fun. But to some people it is. And people like getting "free" stuff.

But you can't just look at things from your own perspective.

That actually largely what I'm talking about in a general sense. Play fast be social etc. Do flips bomb pots etc if they want.

I didn't say poker fish should be paid- I said they should be catered to. Games revolve around them period.

In the specific case of Keating - I'm not even saying he should get a piece of HCL. But when you're buying in for hundreds of thousands of dollars,vpiping 90 percent,bringing in other whales etc then yes it's pretty reasonable that he gets to call shots most other players don't get to call.

Ryan has every right to say no and Keating has every right to take his ball and go elsewhere.

This is just normal high stakes politics that happen regularly in private games/home games happening on stream games now. Poker like a lot of businesses becomes very transactional/relation dependent/kinda slimy like this when lots of money is involved.

Keating didn’t articulate it well probably because he was intoxicated so it’s coming off very poorly but from a very basic level I think players who are instrumental to building streams should have better recognition/compensation and or input/security on the streams. As of now it’s simply you have the right to play.... maybe. I know this is very controversial but imagine the frustration of someone who goes out of their way to build personal relationships to be able to get people to play and create great lineups, goes out of his way to be entertaining, and loses financially from the stream to get no recognition besides when it benefits the stream, no compensation, no security and just a lot of bad experiences. Meanwhile HCL is becoming incredibly valuable and he’s getting offers constantly to partner with other parties. Why would he want to play?

Obviously Ryan doesn’t have to give him anything but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for a way to make the situation such that it’s worth it to him to continue the relationship. It comes off sounding like he’s complaining or being a baby but in reality he’s entitled to his opinion and it actually makes a lot of sense from his perspective.

After that Spaces rant, if I'm Feldman I tell him to F-ck off
They don't need him. Is he nice to have, of course. I think they needed Garrett when they first launched, he's been gone for 8 months and they're doing the same numbers basically.

Find some new LA whales, Airball, Ben, get the occasional poker "star" in Jungle and Polk or Dwan/Ivey and who cares.

He says he's going to start a competing stream, GL. I'm sure Keating is dying to put in the production work, logistics, keeping all these cry babies (Like Keating) happy, etc

Yeah I get and agree with all of the above

Keating thing is bizarre. I’ve never watched HCL other than a few highlight clips. Can’t imagine waking up and thinking to myself “ohh I can’t wait to watch Alan Keating on HCL today”. So I don’t understand the pull that he thinks he has and asking for piece of company is weird.

Ive seen this repeated multiple times before but is this actually true?

I remember Garret era being closer to 20k viewers and whenever I see HCL with a typical lineup without Helmuth or some rando celeb its under 5k.

Ya I’d find it surprising if viewership hasn’t declined... I personally find the nick air ball/Ben era even Mariano (who I like just think he’s not a fun stream player/entertaining) unwatchable but maybe I don’t align with the masses. Other streams live at the bike mainly are pretty terrible though. Lodge has been getting better I guess could take market share but I can’t stand their commentator so i just don’t watch much anymore to be honest.

Is it possible Keating is trolling?

I think a lot of people auto assume that the stream is printing money. At the end of the day, it’s just a free to watch YouTube channel. As others have said the channel has been stagnant for a while, they haven’t been able to spin it off into something even bigger.

What kind of equity would he be looking for…does the Hustler corporation just let Nick and Ryan keep everything they make? I just don’t see it….yes I know that YT channels make money…

I basically just watch highlights but love watching him play. I'll watch an entire stream with him on it over the course of a couple of days.

I think he definitely brings views, though he might not be for everyone.I also have no idea what this stream could actually be making or what he could actually be worth to it.

Seen him a few times on PokerGO, weird smile all the time. He’s some action though which is good.

Eric Persson is my favorite action player. Tried to win most pots, takes creative lines, and doesn’t back down. He created that huge pot vs Patrick

He knows it’s not big, he just wants a small piece of basically nothing just out of principle it sounds like

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxk-rVIkE...crL-pR_W9fDcGW

how does HCL even generate revenue? Purely from youtube streaming? Do they get a cut of the rake from the games they host?

I can't imagine that amounts to much, and surely not more than some of these guys are winning in their carefully selected home games. They also have a large staff of commentators & a production team. Are these people paid salaries from the ad revenue youtube generates?

I’d imagine YouTube revenue is a very small amount of their revenue. I don’t know their sponsor/advertisement deals but that generally covers majority of revenue from entertainment. I think Garrett alluded to it by saying they have multiple revenue streams in poker but don’t know anyone who can/would confirm but they probably run home games/app games and rake the **** out of it since that’ll make a lot more than any other type of revenue.

I agree that they don't need Keating but I think Feldman should be careful here. Later in the Twitter Space he hinted that other players may not show up for the million dollar cash game. He specifically named Perrson but implied that Stanley and JR may not also. He outright said that the first day of the million dollar cash game may not come together anymore. Sounds like he's threatening to convince players to back out.

-YouTube ad revenue

-Sponsorships from WPT and Manscaped etc (I suspect this is their largest source of income)

-Selling Merchandise (Life is Bleff hoodies etc)

-Vertucci is up 500K on the stream in under 2 years

-Feldman plays in a lot of the games after the stream ends. Oh and after him watching 8 hours of the game with hole cards shown


Not sure how much the production staff is paid but they were basically paying Bryan Sagbigsal minimum wage. No wonder they hired an ex con to work in a poker room. Cheap ****s lol.

I hope this is sarcasm.