After a hiatus that lasted over a year, Jason Somerville has made a return to the world of poker streaming. He was once a regular and popular fixture in the poker community, a regular online player going by the name of “JCarver” and talking strategy, but had taken some time off, except for an occasional appearance as a commentator at a live event. Now that he’s back, he’s ready to get things running, but admits that he’s more than a little rusty.
Somerville made his return without any fanfare, choosing instead to surprise his audience. The decision not to announce could have also been driven by his clumsiness, not wanting to draw more attention to himself than was necessary. When he launched the stream, he showed the wrong table for about the first five minutes while still commenting on the action that was invisible to viewers.
He corrected his mistake and the action continued. Unfortunately for him, he did the exact same thing a few hours later.
Reaction on Twitch was a little mixed. Viewers made comments such as “Why are we watching this withered old rusty streamer?” “I’m enjoying this more than actually seeing the table.” “This is what Twitch poker has been missing.”
As he was getting back into the swing of things, he was able to turn an embarrassing start into a successful week. Last week, he reached the final table of a $215 tournament and busted in fifth for $1,500. He followed that up the next day with a second-place finish at another $215 event to pick up $8,537.
The man who has won over $3.5 million in live tournaments, and a WSOP bracelet from 2011, needs to grease the wheels and get into gear if his new endeavor is going to be successful. Somerville is behind the Run It Up Studios in Las Vegas, which is designed to help aspiring poker streamers succeed with their own streams. He has previously stated that he hopes his streaming expertise will “grow the game of poker by reaching more fans, more regularly, and with superior poker programming.”
Chances are, he’ll be doing a lot of streaming this month. He now lives in Vancouver, also the home to fellow streamer Lex Veldhuis, and will be participating in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, which runs from September 2-17.
