A poker streamer experiment took place recently, where four well known foreign players took on a unique challenge in Phuket, Thailand.
The task? Attempt to crush the micro-stakes games across several poker sites, and come out on top when the digital dust settled. On top of this lofty goal, the four players would attempt a 120-hour marathon of non-stop streaming.
Alexey Fellini, Dmitry Brdz1, Alexey Avr0ra and Daniil Vasiliev, along with invited guests, spent almost a week in Phuket trying to show a master class at the micro-limits of Pokerdom (a huge Russian poker room) and other sites. The battle was hot, but the NL10 regulars emerged victorious. In fact, this is not the first time that a high-stakes or seasoned professional couldn't beat a low-stakes challenge easily. Kevin Martin also faced the same defeat in his own streaming challenge.
It became clear from the first hours of the stream that it would not be an easy walk. Daniil Vasiliev, who at the beginning of the year played 11 thousand hands at NL10K tables with the strongest professionals on the planet with a win rate of 8.6bb/100, left the regs from limits three orders of magnitude lower with six and a half stacks in his first session.
NL10 and Avr0ra also met unfriendly: at some point, Alexey went into plus six buy-ins, but in the end he left the tables poorer by $63. However, there were also positive moments: Brdz1 finished the first session at +$23, Fellini earned another $24. The latter remained the main supplier of good news: with his help, the next one managed to increase the total bankroll to $211 and move to NL20. Perhaps the experience of playing at these limits had an effect – Alexey regularly streams inexpensive cash, so he did not have to spend much time adjusting to the inhabitants of Pokerdom and CoinPoker. He also owns the titles for the best session at +$141.
In the end, not a single hand was played above NL20. Daniil Vasiliev got the most from NL10-20 regs, Brd did a little better, only adding in the first and last sessions. Avr0ra spent most of the challenge mixing sessions with losing ones.
Daniil never left the tables as a winner, but Avr0ra had two successful sessions towards the end, with +6 and +8 buy-ins. Nikolay Dyrdom1, Alexander Alexz1z and Elizaveta PPPrincess tried to help the streamers, but they also failed to bring the overall balance into the plus.
Overall result: -$301.
The negative result caused a lot of discussion on the Russian Gipsyteam forum: some considered the challenge a serious anti-advertisement for poker, while others, on the contrary, were more optimistic.
Reckoner4 : Honestly, I don't understand why everyone was so demotivated by the stream hut. The memes are funny, of course, but in essence, Avr0ra and Fellini completely blew the field, right from the start.
I only watched Avr0ra closely – and not only is it ideal educational content (free!), but it's also obvious that if Alexey (let's imagine) is left without a bankroll and starts playing again from NL10, then in a year he will be back at high stakes. Isn't that a poker dream?
And the fact that Daniil Vasiliev couldn't quickly switch from playing with Barak with almost no rake to PokerDom's boost-rakecomes — well, he couldn't and couldn't. If he had had motivation and more time, he would have figured it out eventually. Everything we saw definitely doesn't mean that NL10 can't be beat. And the fact that the dispersion at fast tables is crazy and super-powerful adjustments are needed there (primarily on the preflop, which the same Daniil clearly just gave up on) — it also seems to be no secret.
Everyone agreed on one thing: the challenge was very exciting! We talked to the streamers, asked them to share their impressions and talk about their plans.
– How did the idea of Stream Hut come about? What was the most difficult from an organizational point of view?
– Fellini : We are friends with Avr0ra, we often discuss something about content. Once he said that it would be cool to make Stream Hut someday, similar to the projects of Dota/GTA/Counter-Strike streamers. I liked the idea right away.
One problem: Avr0ra would like to participate, but he would not like to organize. On the contrary, I really like creating projects from scratch, when there is nothing, to the final product. Even in the production of interviews and podcasts, I probably like the part of producing and organizing processes more than the time directly in front of the camera.
So I volunteered. They offered Pokerdom to participate as sponsors, a huge thank you to the guys for agreeing. Personal thanks to Oleg and Dima! I have never encountered such a productive and effective dialogue with the room's management, and I have communicated with many in my 18 years in poker.
– Overall, what do you think of the idea and format? Would you like to change anything?
– Daniil: I am very pleased with the project, I had a lot of fun. Not only did we manage to assemble a top team for such a difficult task, but everyone fought to the end.
– Brdz1 : The format is great, the poker community liked it. As soon as I managed to catch my breath, I went to GipsyTeam and saw discussions about Stream Hut in many places. This is a good sign.
I would like to add reports on distance and profit in live mode. But we haven't figured out yet how to solve this issue specifically on Pokerdom.
– Avr0ra : the idea is not new and has been well-tested by time and gaming streamers. I have long wanted to try a poker stream hut, but I did not want to be the organizer myself (too much work), and when Lesha Fellini agreed to take it on, I was super-pleased. Initially, we were thinking of doing it ourselves at our own expense, but fortunately, we found sponsors. Thanks to Pokerdom! It turned out to be a full-fledged, interesting poker show.
What can be improved:
1) There definitely needs to be a punishment for a losing session. Let's say, a set of push-ups for each stack lost at the end of the shift or something like that. It would look funny and amusing in general: a new streamer comes on shift, and the previous one does push-ups for another half an hour on the webcam))
2) Integrate tournaments, for example, introduce one tournament shift at low AFS. Both viewers ask for it, and it will dilute the monotony of cash and will not ruin the schedule.
You can also find a Omaha reg to dilute the routine with a new game. At the same time, you could check what's going on in the micros! I'd take a look myself.
3) A show like this needs an element of survival. Not hardcore, just realistically show how you can hold out with a real micro-limit budget, add some life content in the form of shopping/cooking.
– Why do you think you failed to win?
– Fellini: For me the most important thing is that we had 580 viewers on average for 160 hours of non-stop streaming on platforms that were created from scratch and had 0 subscribers (except on Kick).
Would I be more satisfied if we won money? Slightly yes. But Daniil compensated for his results by having online not lower than Avr0ra, the viewers were very interested in watching him. For me, Dania was a revelation as a streamer, even if I am not sure that the strategy he chose had many chances of success. And the fact that I became a top winner, the role of dispersion (and the fact that I have always been able to press the Fold button well) is great.
– Daniil: I didn’t manage to show the result. I won’t talk about insurmountable obstacles that I encountered during the challenge, there aren’t any. I don’t know why it didn’t work out, but my win rate was clearly minimal this time, and the dispersion also had an effect. But I don’t think that my game doesn’t work at micro limits (although it may not be the best adjustment to this field).
– Brdz1 : I haven't played professionally for a long time, my form leaves much to be desired, plus I forgot the absolute base of all times: don't play fast poker when moving up in limits. We didn't even take rakeback into account in the format, which makes the choice of fast-fold tables even worse. I underestimated the high rake and the complexity of the lineups, so the result is quite natural.
– Avr0ra : We underestimated the difficulty. It wasn't a classic NL10 after all, too many people were hunting us and making the task harder. It's cool and fun, we just had to take that into account and immediately take the game more seriously.
NL10 is a limit where you can find very good games and regs don't fight for pots at all. I think if you keep these two points in mind, it will be easy to beat it.
– Will there be a sequel and when can we expect it?
Fellini : I think this format shouldn't be done too often. It should be an event that people look forward to and miss, not a daily routine. We have a lot of ideas on what could be improved/changed/improved. And of course, we'd like to take revenge! So we'd be happy to hold more than one Stream Hut together with Pokerdom.
Brdz1 : This Stream Hut was physically quite hard for me. I think I would agree, but I don't want to stream at night anymore.
Avr0ra : yes, it will be possible to make a second attempt, take into account all the mistakes and do better, why not. I give 80% that you will see an improved Stream Hut, it turned out really well.
Daniil : I can't wait until we can get together again and fight for profit at micro limits!
