{"id":10625,"date":"2018-07-23T17:01:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T17:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pokerscout.com\/?p=10625"},"modified":"2018-07-23T21:04:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T21:04:42","slug":"a-chat-with-jason-somerville-twitch-platinum-passes-and-the-future-of-us-poker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pokerscout.com\/a-chat-with-jason-somerville-twitch-platinum-passes-and-the-future-of-us-poker\/","title":{"rendered":"A Chat With Jason Somerville: Twitch, Platinum Passes, And The Future Of US Poker"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jason Somerville<\/strong> has become one of poker\u2019s most visible players over the last few years. His poker career goes back to 2004, a time when online poker was still in its infancy.<\/p>\n Since then he has won a World Series of Poker<\/strong> bracelet, founded a poker training site and become the most popular poker streamer<\/strong> on Twitch<\/strong>. On top of all that, he\u2019s now a PokerStars<\/strong> ambassador and is giving away a PokerStars Platinum Pass worth $30,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Platinum Pass gives its holders a trip to the Bahamas<\/strong>, a stay at the Atlantis<\/strong> resort on Paradise Island<\/strong>, and a seat in what PokerStars describes as \u201cthe richest $25,000 poker tournament in history.\u201d<\/p>\n PokerStars is adding $9 million<\/strong> to the prize pool, including an extra $1 million for the winner<\/strong>. The event will run from January 6 to January 10, 2019.<\/p>\n Many of the PokerStars ambassadors have been given Platinum Passes to give away for free in ways that will help promote online poker. Fellow Twitch streamers Jaime Staples<\/strong>, Lex Veldhuis<\/strong>, Fintan<\/strong> and Spraggy<\/strong> have passes to give away, and Chris Moneymaker<\/strong> is handing out nine to the winners of each main event in the Moneymaker PSPC Tour<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Somerville is full of enthusiasm for the project. He believes the Platinum Pass Adventure is a truly \u201camazing\u201d promotion, an incredible way for PokerStars to \u201cgive back to the players.\u201d<\/p>\n He thinks the event will have the same atmosphere as the WSOP Main Event<\/strong>. \u201cThere\u2019ll be so many amazing story lines coming out of this it\u2019s going to be really sick.\u201d<\/p>\n Each ambassador is finding their own way to hand out their passes, and Somerville has decided that he wants to offer his to \u201cthe next great Twitch poker streamer.\u201d<\/p>\n The opt-in period for players to participate in the competition\u00a0ends Friday, July 27. Players can enter by sending their name, twitch page, country of origin and a short paragraph about themselves to\u00a0pspc@runitup.com<\/a>. Once the opt in period has ended the contest will run for four months and the winner will be chosen on November 15<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Somerville has tremendous personal charisma, and a fund of anecdotes which he shares with his Twitch audience while streaming. However, he denied that he was a natural<\/strong> for the role.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t consider myself a natural. I had to work really hard. As I did poker videos I learned and gradually got better. If I hadn\u2019t had all the years playing and developing a library of stories [it would be so good].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Somerville is full of praise for Twitch:<\/p>\n \u201cSo much more engagement than YouTube or TV. Twitch has been incredibly supportive of poker.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He described the early days when much of his audience was unfamiliar with online poker.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great to play the tour guide for Twitch chat, but so many times when I\u2019d go off live there\u2019d be nobody streaming.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That was his motivation to launch runitup247<\/strong><\/a>. In partnership with PokerStars<\/a>, Somerville\u2019s new channel offers 24\/7 streaming of high quality premium poker content. The project naturally aligns PokerStars and Somerville\u2019s interests:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here to grow the game, we have to be on every platform.\u201d<\/p>\n His plan to offer a Platinum Pass to a Twitch poker streamer is aimed directly at encouraging more novices to stream their play on Twitch to help promote the game.<\/p>\n In the first half of 2018, Justin Bonomo<\/strong> has had what is probably the best run of any poker player in history. He won the Super High Roller Bowl, a bracelet in the WSOP $10,000 Heads-Up Championship<\/strong>, several of the $25,000 High Rollers at the Aria,<\/strong> and to cap it all, took down the Big One for One Drop<\/strong> for a prize of $10 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Bonomo has now edged out Daniel Negreanu<\/strong> at the top of the all-time winning list, having added just shy of $25 million in tournament winnings<\/strong> since the beginning of 2018.<\/p>\n Somerville was full of admiration for his friend\u2019s achievement:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve known Justin for a long time, always an honourable guy, always working on his game and he always had insights other people didn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Joe Cada<\/strong> has also done brilliantly at this year\u2019s WSOP<\/strong>. He won the Main Event in 2009, and managed a second Main Event final table this year, when he finished fifth. After a day\u2019s break, he then took down the $1,500 Closer event<\/strong> to win his fourth WSOP bracelet.<\/p>\n Somerville commented:<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of respect for him as a human and very happy to see his success this year, amazing success. It\u2019s been an insane run, a testament to his skill. He was always a good player, even before he won the Main. To make another deep run underscores the fact that it was not just luck the first time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPlatinum Pass provides the chance of a huge win<\/span><\/h2>\n
Somerville\u2019s success on Twitch took hard work<\/span><\/h2>\n
On Justin Bonomo and Joe Cada<\/span><\/h2>\n
Poker in the US has a bright future<\/span><\/h2>\n