Use Twitch As A Tool For Learning Poker Strategy

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Use Twitch As A Tool For Learning Poker Strategy

If you’re a serious poker player, then you’ll already know that the world is chock full of poker strategy resources. There are thousands of books, coaching courses, and training videos. Just do a quick search on YouTube and you be faced with enough material to keep you busy for a very long time. But there’s also another resource that’s relatively new. Twitch live streaming entered the marketplace in 2015 and has since become the de facto means of learning all about poker strategy. But of all the available resources, what has made Twitch the stand-out?

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Twitch Allows You to Look Over a Pro’s Shoulder

You have to remember that Twitch actually started out as Justin.TV., which was a platform whereby players could stream their game-play. Since it’s inception, it’s been a continuous process of branching out, covering all things from cooking shows to talk shows. So it was only a matter of time before gamblers discovered the platform and found ways of making it useful for their own interest. Because the whole concept is based around live-streaming, then watching gambling sessions quickly became essential viewing for many fans around the world. By seeing the moves these professional players are making is a great way to improve your own game as well as picking up lots of jackpot winning tips and tricks.

For an amateur player, the service is a God-given boon. You can see how grinding players deal with certain situations. Also, the players will often take the time to explain their moves later, meaning that a simple 3-betting or folding can hold some significant and useful information for the viewers. Another newer element is the possibility of asking questions via a chatbox, which adds yet another layer of interactivity to the game. It should be noted that better players quickly gain a huge following. These guys tend to be really nice people as well, always willing to go that extra mile to help a newbie. These are some of the most popular poker Twitch streamers at the moment.

Jason Somerville (Run It Up TV)

He is by far the most successful streamer to date. His original handle was “JCarver” but now he has the moniker of “Run It Up TV”. He can boast of having over 250,000 subscribers, which keeps growing every month. He’s famous for inviting fans to play against him through his Run It Up TV home game platform. Oh…and he’s the WSOP champion!

Jaime Staples (PokerStaples)

With over 100,000 active subscribers, Jamie has almost 300 videos on the site. The Canadian really became famous after winning the $150,000 weight loss bet with Bill Perkins.

Randy Lew (nanonoko)

He’s most famous for the way he loves to play multiple tables at the same time. Though it’s always a total madness around him, he has built up a huge following. Most famously he used to play an insane 20 tables at the same time. Consequently, he holds the world record for most hands played in an 8-hour session….a totally bonkers 14,500!

Lex Veldhuis (LexVeldhuis)

This Dutch player started out playing StarCraft before turning his attention to poker in the early 2,000’s. He’s easy to find on Twitch as he streams daily with cash games and online tournaments.

Parker Talbot (TonkaaaaP)

Another insanely popular player who is constantly streaming. He made over $3 million in profits by playing cash games and is one of the most profitable players on the platform. His style is very animated, to put it gently, with his antics both making him incredibly popular but also turning off a good number of viewers. Never the less, his channel enjoys around 100,000 subscribers and continues to grow.

Enjoy the Entertainment Aspect While Learning

If you’re watching a jackpot poker game via a Twitch stream, you’ll quickly realize that it’s not just about the gameplay. There’s also the entertainment value that these personalities portray. They all create a fun and interesting spectacle that keeps the viewers transfixed. These audiences return to get their poker fill day after day. These players also have the ability to explain exactly what they’re doing without it sounding dry and boring. If you’re reading a book on poker strategy, then there’s simply no comparison between that and these Twitch streamers. With these guys, you’re learning whilst at the same time being entertained.

Engage With the Streamers

If you’re at the casino, you can’t walk up to a professional player and start asking him questions during a game. In fact, most of these players are difficult to approach at the best of times. But with Twitch streamers, it’s a totally different vibe. Whenever you see a chatbox, you’re free to ask them anything. And they engage and respond. This makes learning via chat so much easier. Though these chat boxes do have a 5 – 10 minute built-in delay, they will always make the effort to answer each and every query or question. After all, it’s this personal level engagement that makes them so likable.

One thing we would suggest is that you stick to asking about poker rather than any other jackpot games. Keep the subject matter appropriate and relatable to the card game and you’ll have a much better chance of enjoying some personal level interaction. You’ll find that the right question at the right time will also spark a discussion across all the chatbox subscribers, leading to you discovering even more interesting and new ways of playing the game of poker.

Learning Poker Strategy Through Twitch Is Free

Whatever path you choose to learn more about playing poker is, on the whole, going to set you back financially. Books and training are not cheap. If you want the best, then that’s having one to one tutoring with a professional. And that is going to be very, very expensive. Most of the decent teachers are charging around $150 per hour. But Twitch is completely free. You don’t even have to subscribe to the channels you like. Yes, there is always some Twitch content that’s only available via subscription, but there’s so much free content there’s just no point in paying. And don’t worry about the streamers themselves. They are making serious bank with promotions, individual sponsorship deals, and shared ad revenue.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Twitch Streams

There’s no specific plan of action to get the most from Twitch live streams. Pick either the best known or the ones that speak to you and what you want to learn. We do suggest that you spread your viewing time and look at a number of successful streamers as the sheer variety is going to be more insightful. Also, each player will have their own style, featuring different strengths and weaknesses. There are so many different situations to be encountered in a game of poker that it pays to see how different players handle those events.

Another point is that you can record the shows to play them back at your leisure or simply take notes as their doing their live streams. These notes will act as great references later on.

Check Out the VODs

Video on Demand is another great way of viewing content that’s already aired. This allows you to skip the boring parts or parts that you’re familiar with and get down with all the stuff related to your game. It’s also much easier to make notes as you can pause the game-play whenever it suits you. One thing we would recommend, and that’s it important you’re not just wasting away the day watching poker being played on Twitch. Your job is to analyze and scrutinize every move looking for the best jackpot winning strategies. Think through all the game plays in progress. Ask yourself, why is that player making that move now? Make good use of your time. Remember that you’re on a journey of improvement. To that end, set a time limit on the amount of live streaming you watch.

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