Daniel Negreanu starts his Twitch adventure on a high after winning $50,000 playing mixed games, whilst lying in his bed, during his first real money Twitch experience.
Daniel Negreanu has launched his Twitch career in superlative fashion, winning $50,000 playing mixed games, whilst horizontal in his bed.
Kid Poker made his first appearance on Twitch on Tuesday, April 14. He thanked the newest PokerStars recruit, and Twitch star, Jamie Staples, for setting him up, as he proceeded to get involved in some play money games, whilst giving viewers a tour of his home, and an introduction to his dog.
That one appearance netted him over 4,000 subscribers and attracted over 150,000 unique views. On Sunday, Negreanu decided to get involved in the real thing. He one-tabled a $400/$800 Mixed Game, playing against the likes of Ben Sulsky, Matthew Ashton and Luke Schwartz, and he did it all from the comfort of his own bed.
He currently has 13,405 subscribers, and over 220,000 unique views.
So how did the kid do?
The early numbers show that Negreanu could easily become the most popular poker player on Twitch – if that’s what he wants. Twitch is many things, but one of them is a heavy investment of your time. Only time will tell if Negreanu wants to invest his time in a way that will make him the Twitch phenomenon that we all know he can be.
It was clear from the outset that Negreanu was just having a ‘stab’ at Twitch. There was no production. Just Negreanu lying in his bed, drinking copious amounts of water, and making regular trips to the bathroom. I only watched the first 30-minutes of the stream. In that time I was treated to the sights and sounds of Kid Poker taking a pee. Who can blame him. He didn’t want to miss a hand.
“I am getting more and more comfortable with you people.” Said Negreanu with his wedding tackle in between his fingers.
Don’t worry folks. He washed his hands.
Somerville has been at this thing a lot longer. He has a show. It’s more than just Somerville playing poker. He also never goes to the toilet. The lad must have tubes, pipes and buckets underneath that table of his.
Somerville’s early start means he now has over 90,000 subscribers, and over 5.8m unique views. Staples has over 23,000 subscribers and 1.5m unique views. Negreanu can eat those numbers if he wants to.
Is was clear from the outset that Negreanu was talking to an audience of beginner poker players. He was explaining the basics of mixed games, and in the first 30-minutes didn’t go too deep into the complexities of the game. It was great to see the facial expressions, and the mind ticking as a true star goes about his business.
What will be endearing about Negreanu is his honesty and vulnerability. For example, he was very open about his respect for Sulsky: “He’s really freaking good. He played me HU and absolutely destroyed me. I made the mistake of playing deep with him and he was way better than me.”
There will be times when he will talk about his disrespect for certain players. He won’t hold back. That’s what makes him the top draw. We pay, not only to watch him play, but to also hear his opinion.
In the future I expect to see Negreanu combine his play, and analysis of it, with the video blog format that he recently became notorious for. He will choose relevant topics of conversation and delve into them, instead of waiting to answer questions from his audience. This is what will interest us the most. This is where the watchers will get their value.
It would also be great to see him with various guests. If he can single table, then he has the talent to be able to play and mix all of this together, to create one of the most interesting Twitch channels in poker.
Negreanu’s move onto the Twitch platform comes at a popular time. George Danzer, Dutch Boyd and Griffin Benger are three other well-known players who are having a play with the format. In the future, who knows, perhaps it will be a staple part of a poker player’s brand?
Do you think Negreanu will overtake Somerville as poker’s star of Twitch?
Let me know in the comments below.
