Catch up on all of this week’s PokerStars Blog content…

• Spring Championship of Online Poker 2019 starts Sunday May 12
• Second Steps: Strategy tips for Scrabble
• Spraggy battles Parker “tonkaaaap” Talbot heads-up live on Twitch

Plus:

• 5-Card Fiction: Evoking Stu Ungar with a 10-high call on “Billions”

SCOOP 2019 KEY DATES ANNOUNCED

The key dates for the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker have now been revealed. This year’s series will run from Sunday May 12 to Monday May 27.

Click here for the key dates so far, including the Main Event and satellites.

Speaking of big tournaments, don’t forget this week’s Sunday Million begins at 14:00 ET, not 13:00 ET. That’s for this Sunday only, and takes into account Daylight Saving. It returns to normal the weekend after.

SECOND STEPS: STRATEGY TIPS FOR SCRABBLE

Scrabble may be the most popular word game in the world, but you don’t need an English degree, nor to be able to construct beautiful sentences, to win it.

In ‘Second Steps’, Howard Swains aims to make you slightly better at a game you already know. This week it’s Scrabble, and he’s got some amazing tips to help you score more points and make your tiles go further.

Click here if you’d like to start beating your friends at Scrabble.

SPRAGGY VS TONKAAAAP: HEADS-UP VR LIVE ON TWITCH

They’ve (pretended to have) had a heated rivalry on the Twitch streets for years, and this week we saw them finally squared off: Ben “Spraggy” Spragg vs Parker “Tonkaaaap” Talbot, heads-up in a game of PokerStars Virtual Reality poker.

We won’t give you any spoilers, but trust us: it’s well worth a watch.

Check out Spraggy vs Tonkaaaap here.

5-CARD FICTION: EVOKING STU UNGAR ON “BILLIONS”

Ever heard the story of when legendary poker player Stu Ungar made a call with just 10-high, and was right? If not don’t worry. The writers of the TV show Billions have, and they liked it so much they turned it into a fictional hand on the popular Showtime TV show.

In this week’s 5-Card Fiction, Martin Harris examines the original Ungar hand, how it compares with the Billions tribute, and how nice it is to see a poker hand on TV that isn’t quads vs a royal flush!

Have a read of 5-Card Fiction, the Billions edition.

Other pieces you might be interested in:

• “kristiandali” on his High Roller Club victory and how he improved his game in 2018
• PokerStars School: Add these eight healthy habits to your game
• Attention freeroll players: We’re adding thousands to New Prizepool Madness Freeroll
• São Paulo: Home of the BSOP, but that’s only the start
• Book excerpt: “Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em” by Jonathan Little

Have a great weekend!

You can play poker for free on PokerStars. Simply click here to open an account.

Of poker pro and coach Jonathan Little’s several strategy books, Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em has been especially cited for praise by those who play lower stakes NLHE — a group that comprises the majority of poker players.

In the book Little shows readers how to play a solid, competent, decently aggressive style that will be profitable in these games. He provides both a basic strategy to crush small stakes games and identifies adjustments needed when facing more challenging competition.

Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em begins with several chapters devoted to preflop strategy, including how to play when you are first in as the open-raiser, when facing limpers, when facing a raise, and other situations. Then come chapters focused on postflop strategy, including how to proceed after being the preflop aggressor and after calling before the flop, and other technical skills applicable to postflop play.

Little also includes more advice about game selection, tournaments, bankroll management for a wide variety of formats, and how to avoid tilt yourself while taking advantage of it in others.

The following excerpt appears within the chapter “Post-Flop Strategy: As the Pre-Flop Aggressor” and comes within a section covering how to proceed after you’ve raised before the flop and then flopped a draw — be it a strong draw, a marginal draw, or a “junky” draw.

Draws

For the most part, your plan with your draws is to bet with the intention of betting again on most turns, especially if the board changes (making your opponent’s premium and marginal made hands worse). If you happen to have a draw that has a large amount of showdown value, checking behind on the flop may be ideal. If your draw relies on fold equity, betting is mandatory if you think you have fold equity, but be willing to check it if you have reason to believe your opponent will rarely fold.

Strong Draws

Strong draws are draws with 12 or more outs to the effective nuts. While your best draws always have a significant amount of equity, it is important to understand that they vary in strength and should be played accordingly. For example, A♥K♥ on J♥T♥3♠ is a marginal made hand that can easily win at showdown if it does not improve (your best Ace-highs usually fall in the marginal made hand range), whereas 9♥8♥ cannot win at showdown. As your showdown value decreases, you have to rely more heavily on fold equity, although that is not always the case.

For example, an early position player raises and only you call from the button with J♥T♥. The flop comes A♥K♥4♦. Your opponent makes a continuation bet. At this point, you do not have much fold equity because this board should be excellent for your opponent’s range, as most early position raisers play primarily big pairs and strong big cards. A raise will make your opponent fold all hands worse than a King, but you will almost certainly be able to win the pot from those hands on the turn by betting when your opponent checks. Calling allows you to keep the pot small when you are not a huge favorite, and allows you to continue keeping the pot small if you do not improve on the turn. If instead you had 6♥5♥ on a 9♥8♥2♦ board, you should strongly consider raising because this board is not good for most preflop raisers’ ranges, meaning you have some amount of fold equity.

In general, middle card boards are better for the caller than the raiser because most players raise with all big cards and only some middle cards. When someone calls, they often have many combinations of middle cards in their range and fewer combinations of big cards (because they 3-bet some of them). This means that the pre-flop caller should have more middle cards in his range than the pre-flop raiser. Also, note that the pre-flop raiser should have more big cards than the pre-flop caller, making boards containing big cards better for the pre-flop raiser.

With your best draws, it is vitally important that you do not play them in a manner that leads to you having to fold. It is quite common for amateurs to raise a continuation bet with a hand like Q♥T♥ on 9♥8♥4♠ and then fold when their opponent goes all-in. If you think that your flop raise may get pushed on a decent amount of the time, call instead. Even if you do raise and get pushed on, you should usually call due to the fact that premium draws win about 50% of the time against ranges that are not incredibly tight (remember, you don’t want to raise against tight ranges because they won’t fold) and you will only need to win 40% of the time or so based on the pot odds.

Marginal Draws

Marginal draws have 8 or 9 outs to the effective nuts. These are your unexciting open-ended straight draws and flush draws. They often have overcards that may or may not add additional equity. These hands are usually strong enough to bet and call a reasonable raise due to their large implied odds, but if you bet perhaps 4 big blinds on the flop and your opponent raises to 29 big blinds, you should fold the majority of the time.

Compared to strong draws, marginal draws have to rely heavily on implied odds because they are behind all made hands. This should lead you to bet these hands every time on the flop unless you are confident you have no fold equity or you think your opponent is going to check/raise to an amount that will force you to fold.

Junky Draws

Junky draws are draws with fewer than 8 outs to the effective nuts. The most common junky draw is a gutshot straight draw. Even gutshots vary in value, from decently strong to completely unplayable. For example, J-10 on 8-7-3 is quite strong due to the presence of overcards that can improve to top pair, but 5-4 on the same board is total junk because it only has 4 outs, and when you hit, you still lose to the most obvious draw, 10-9.

Jonathan Little

For more from Jonathan Little, check out this recent summary of his revealing and insightful “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit Poker.

Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em is available in paperback, as an e-book, and as an audio book at D&B Poker.

D&B Publishing (using the imprint D&B Poker) was created by Dan Addelman and Byron Jacobs 15 years ago. Since then it has become one of the leading publishers of poker books with titles by Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Chris Moorman, Dr. Patricia Cardner, Lance Bradley, Martin Harris and more, all of which are available at D&B Poker.

A recap of the major results from this weekend on PokerStars…

• Malta’s “MoTTaGeNiaL” wins the Milly for $110K
• World #2 “Lena900” takes down $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up for $50K
• Saturday night special for “€urop€an”: four FTs, two titles
• All the results from the weekend majors

Weekend review – March 25th

MALTA’S “MoTTaGeNiaL” WINS SUNDAY MILLION FOR $110K

The biggest weekly tournament on PokerStars saw 10,805 entries yesterday, creating a $1.08 million prize pool that would be split between the top 1,934 players.

There was $110,898 set aside for the eventual champ, and at the end that would turn out to be Malta’s “MoTTaGeNiaL”, who took it down with no deal. The UK’s “MarToMchat” finished second for $80,470.

The whole thing took more than 15 hours to wrap up.

“Lena900” WINS $1,050 SUNDAY WARM-UP FOR JUST UNDER $50K

After 44 weeks ranked as the world’s no.1 online tournament player (according to PocketFives.com), this week saw Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt knocked off the top spot by Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky.

Niklas “Lena900” Astedt

However, “Lena900” put up a darn good fight on Sunday, hoping to reclaim the top spot next week after victory in the High Roller Club’s $1,050 Sunday Warm-up for $49,627.

“Lena900” had another close call too, finishing fifth in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller for an additional $17,842.

SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL FOR “€urop€an”

Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden has been a long-time crusher online, but while most big results tend to fall on a Sunday, this week he dominated Saturday night’s action.

“€urop€an” kicked off the evening with victory in the High Roller Club’s $530 Bounty Builder for $14,137 plus bounties. He then finished second in the $1,050 Saturday KO for $8,268 plus $5,453.

The results didn’t stop there. “€urop€an” also took down a $215 Saturday KO event for $8,543 plus bounties (which saw Fintan “easywithaces” Hand finish fourth for $3,364), and capped things off with a final table in the $530 Daily 500 (ninth for $1,444).

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE HIGH ROLLER CLUB

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE WEEKEND MAJORS

6+ Hold’em was only introduced on PokerStars in January 2019, but already it’s become a favorite among fans regulars and casual players alike. Recently we reached out to four 6+ Hold’em regulars to pick up some strategy tips and learn what keeps them coming back for more.

Action, action, action!!!

Ask enough regulars about 6+ Hold’em and you’ll find they all agree one bedrock principle: the nuts and bolts of 6+ Hold’em make it a high-quality action game.

“I love the fast-paced action,” says Roman Yitzhaki. “I have been in some crazy games with the whole table gambling. Everyone approaches 6+ in their own unique way, and it’s fun to try to solve everyone’s puzzle.”

The puzzle shares its poker DNA with two of the most popular variants around. “It’s really a fun game with some interesting strategy differences. It plays like Omaha in a lot of ways but with the simplicity of Hold’em,” says Mike Watson.

Peter Jetten knows a thing or two about winning at new games — he won the first Open Face Chinese Poker tournament at the PCA.

Max Silver concurs. “I’ve played Hold’em and Omaha extensively during my career and I think 6+ offers a bit of both. You still have two cards but equities run much closer and boards tend to be much more dynamic due to the higher frequency of straights.”

The end result, says Peter Jetten, is a game that grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. “If you’ve read my tweets you know that 2019 is the year of action and as far as that goes, this is the game that keeps on giving. I’ve been impressed by the power 6+ Hold’em has to draw in and hook both new players and those who have been playing other games for many years.”

Unexpected Highlights

One of the benefits of picking up a new game is discovering aspects that set it apart from other more familiar forms of poker. For the pros we talked to, 6+ Hold’em was no different.

For Silver, one of the biggest surprises came away from the tables when he was crunching numbers. “I’ve been running a lot of equities to learn the game and when I found out JT suited is a favorite over pocket tens that blew my mind,” he says. “It’s refreshing after 8 years as a professional poker player to play and learn something new.”

These days Mike Watson finds himself playing a lot of 6+ Hold’em.

Jetten has been impressed by just how many highlights can be packed into a 6+ Hold’em session. “I’ve seen a lot in my brief time playing Short Deck, so it’s tough to pick out my favorite highlights. Perhaps it was one of several timely one-outers, or stealing someone’s chicken in a big pot, or even a mega hero call. I think the best highlight was winning a six-way all-in holding 8-6.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise at all — certainly the most complimentary to the game itself — was Watson’s. “When I started playing 6+ Hold’em I thought it was a stupid game that I had to learn for some of the high roller tournament series I wanted to play,” he says. “Now I find myself playing more short deck than anything else.”

6+ Hold’em strategy advice for new players

With so many similarities to standard Texas Hold’em, 6+ Hold’em will feel familiar for many new players. But that familiarity can also lead to trouble when the differences between the two games begin to show up. So what 6+ Hold’em strategy advice do these pros have for new players?

Start slow with 6+ Hold’em, says Max Silver, and learn the equities so you’ll know when you’re getting your money in good.

“Start slow,” says Silver. “It’s a game of high variance and you will end up all-in a lot. Learn the equities and you’ll soon learn surprising things like an open-ended straight draw is a flip or better against top pair. Abuse your fold equity whenever possible, as it’s huge if your opponent folds a 30% claim to the pot. Finally, a flush beats a full house, so proceed with caution on three- and four-flush boards.”

Because the equities in a given hand run so much closer than in Texas Hold’em, new 6+ Hold’em players need to realize that small differences in hand strength can have a big effect. “There is a big difference between hands one rank apart,” says Yitzhaki. “For example, J-9 is very different from J-8 and A-K from A-Q. Suited hands also seem quite strong, so where J-9 off-suit is weak, J-9 suited is quite strong.”

Watson suggests that regular Hold’em players depart from familiar strategies in one key way when they play 6+. “A lot of Hold’em players don’t like to limp in, but in the 6+ ante structure it’s an important part of your strategy. Especially in early position, it’s often better to just call the big blind and see what happens behind you before committing too much money.”

“Without the little cards in the deck, you are dealt a playable hand much more often,” says Jetten. “Also the ‘ante up’ structure makes the pots big right from the first time you look at your cards. Considering those things, my general advice is to play aggressively trying to take down as many pots as you can, and don’t be afraid to gamble if you are facing an all-in!”

Ready to put these 6+ Hold’em strategy tips to the test? Click here to open a PokerStars account today.

Get the full Sochi experience at the EPT Open later this year…

The EPT Sochi festival is taking place this week. If events there have made you curious about this lesser known stop on the European Poker Tour, you might be interested in details of another event taking place in Sochi later this year.

The EPT Open Sochi offers the same EPT backdrop, the same luxurious destination, but all with a smaller buy-in.

It’s the same as an EPT Festival in other ways too.

You can win your seat in the same way, with packages including Main Event seat, hotel accommodation, and travel expenses.

It takes place in October this year, with satellites every weekend for those who like to get their seat booked early.

Here are the details.

EPT Open Sochi festival: Friday 4 October to Sunday 13 October 2019

The five-day RUB133,000 buy-in Main Event starts on Wednesday 9 October, and has a RUB70 million guarantee.

For those with bigger bankrolls, there is also a High Roller event on the schedule, with a buy-in of RUB258,000.

Packages consist of Main Event entry, along with six night’s accommodation. You’ll stay at the five-star Sochi Marriott Krasnaya Polyana, between Friday 8 and Monday 14 October. Packages also include US$569 in travel expenses.

You can qualify online at PokerStars in any of the satellites starting this weekend, and running until October. For more details, go to the Events tab in the PokerStars tournament lobby.

Whether you’re playing online poker or at a live table in your local card room, a focus on constantly improving your game is the best way to get ahead. Luckily, PokerStars School is here to help you with that goal. Here’s a look at some of the latest content for improving your game from PS School.

Daniel Negreanu’s ability to formulate live reads on his opponents leads to lots of moments like this.

Learning to read players in a live setting

“The live player is a more interesting specimen to study than his online counterpart,” writes Pete “Carroters” Clarke, “because we can make reads based on more human demographics such as age, behaviours, poker chat, emotional control, and more.”

This week Pete looks at some of the main personality archetypes you’ll come across in live poker, how you can expect them to play, and how you use live tells such as personality and appearance to make reads.

Read all about the Types of Live Poker Players and see the results in your next session.

New Twitch stream: 6-Max Turbo NLHE

If you’re looking to get the most action whenever you sit down, 6-max no-limit Hold’em tables are a great place to be. For a first-hand look at just what the action in 6-max NLHE cash games look like, and the strategies you’ll need to beat the competition, check out this new Twitch session from Pete “Carroters” Clarke.

Learn more from live streams on the PS School Twitch channel.

Cash games: to auto-rebuy or not to auto-rebuy?

You’d better believe Randy Lew keeps the auto-rebuy option checked when he’s playing on PokerStars.

PokerStars cash games offer players the option to automatically rebuy up to the table maximum. Pete Clarke says that as long as you’re using proper bankroll management, you should be using this option every time you sit down to play. Not only do you maximize your winnings against weaker players, but it also allows you to see more hands and, in the process, develop your game.

Learn all the reasons you should be Auto-Rebuying in Cash Games and start making the most of your stack.

Other new PokerStars School content you might enjoy

• Win 25$T and Community Tournament Tickets in the Question of the Week
• Prizepool Madness: Complete PS School challenges and win tickets to the big tournament!
• Video: Deep Stack Post Flop Play, Part 2 and Part 3
• Winners Wall: Sunday Million Anniversary

Open a PokerStars account today and start learning from PokerStars School. Click here to get started, and then click here to register for PokerStars School.

All eyes in the poker world will be on the PokerStars tables next month as we celebrate the 13th anniversary of the most revered online tournament of them all: the PokerStars Sunday Million. As you may have read, there’s a $10 million guarantee and a guaranteed $1 million first prize. But how can you give a boost to your chances of winning it?

That’s where our friends over at PokerStars School come in. As you should be aware by now, PokerStars School is bursting with information for poker players of all abilities, offering easy-to-follow tutorials and video coaching for all poker enthusiasts.

In addition to their absolutely enormous archive of material, including a multi-table tournament course, they have recently launched three articles specifically tackling Sunday Million strategy. There has never been a better time to get acquainted with the superlative work PokerStars School does, nor to have a crack at the Sunday Million.

IN ON THE CHEAP

The regular Sunday Million buy-in is $109 these days, but it has returned to $215 for the anniversary edition. That means you’re going to want to find out how to get in on the cheap, and the first PokerStars School article focuses on satellite strategy. It’s called: “Tips For Winning a Seat to the Sunday Million” and contains exactly what it says in the title.

After helping you find the right satellite to suit your bankroll, there’s plenty of nitty-gritty advice for how to approach the tournament in the early, middle and late stages. So if you’re interested in hunting out overlay, learning when to play cautious and when to be the bully, and even when you should fold aces pre-flop, this is the article for you.

Satellites start at a mere 90 cents — yes, $0.90 — so it’s probably time to download PokerStars to get involved.

CHECK THE STRUCTURE, AND STRUCTURE YOUR STRATEGY

The Sunday Million has been online poker’s most popular regular tournament pretty much since the day it launched, and much of the reason for that lies with its structure. Players get a 10,000-chip starting stack, which is 200 big blinds in Level 1, and the rate at which the blinds escalate hits the sweet spot for both the elite and the recreational players. In the second article in the Sunday Million series, PokerStars School offers tips for how to make the most of this format. It’s called: Attacking the Sunday Million Structure.

Dealers are prepared for the Anniversary Sunday Million

Tutor Dave Roemer splits the tournament into early, middle and late stages, and suggest ways to help you to target the weaker players at the table, while avoiding the pitfalls that might make you one of them. For instance, it’s just plain common sense — but so often forgotten — that getting a 200-big blind stack in the middle early on is just foolish with one pair. However people will do it, so this is the time to get to a flop with your suited connectors and hope to find someone overvaluing their top pair.

Stack sizes are all important during the middle stages, as you play towards and through the bubble. And then when you’re in the money, it’s worth keeping an eye on the money jumps and calculate how the ICM pressures impacting your opponents can help you move towards the highest payday. Read the full article.

WHAT TO DO, AND WHAT NOT TO DO

As with all major tournaments, players in the Sunday Million are hostage to fortune. There’s only so much you can control. But in the third article from the series, PokerStars School gets direct. It’s called Advice on How to Play the Sunday Million and offers some hard and fast rules for how to make the most of the cards you’re dealt.

This includes the importance of three-betting more aggressively, especially when in position, and also analyses when it’s smart not to continuation bet alongside the importance of value betting winners. And, whatever you do, keep an eye on opponents’ stack sizes and don’t put yourself in the position of having to risk half your chips calling an 11 BB shove with J9s.

This. Article. Can. Save. You. Chips.

Pop artist Andy Warhol said everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Warhol never anticipated a powerful platform like Twitch, otherwise he’d have said that everyone will have their own Twitch channel.

Twitch transformed laptops and tablets into mobile television studios. Twitch combines all the coolest elements of television, social media, gaming, entertainment, and creativity all in one singular platform that anyone on the planet can access at any given time. Twitch instantly connects content creators with a global audience and as a result, top streamers have become superstars and highly-coveted influencers.

Team Pros Ben Spragg and Lex Veldhuis are among the most popular poker Twitch streamers

Twitch is not just for video game geeks anymore. In the last year alone, Twitch expanded their categories to include talk shows, podcasts, travel and outdoors, art, music, comedy, sports and fitness, crafts, cooking, beauty products, or simply… just chatting. The faster the platform grows, the more diverse people start using it to broadcast their own niche areas. In turn, those micro-communities germinate into blossoming subcultures.

According to Twitch Tracker, Twitch has 1.2 million concurrent viewers with 55,600 average concurrent live channels. It boasts 4.5 million monthly streamers and viewers are on pace to watch 600 billion minutes of content in 2019. That isn’t limited to English-language streamers. Streams in German, Russian, and Korean have seen exponential growth in the past 12 months.

Streamers have become the masters of their own brands. The best streamers have similar qualities in that they are engaging, reliable, and interesting. Most importantly, especially in the gaming world, it helps immensely if they are good at what they do.

Learning to fly on the fly

The best Twitch streamers combine two important aspects: watching the best compete, and learning rules or how to improve their own strategy.

“The simple things are the hardest to explain,” Steve Winwood from Traffic once sang. Sometimes it’s impossible to describe the simple things. It’s often easier to just show you how something works. This is the exact reason why gaming streams are so popular.

Students and newcomers can immerse themselves into streams and grok everything in an organic process. Of course, the best streamers have the uncanny ability to break down complex situations in simple terms.

The online poker realm on Twitch is rapidly growing in popularity because players are always seeking out new ways to improve. The more you watch the best of the best play, the better you will play.

Fifteen years ago, poker enthusiasts did not have numerous avenues for poker content. Fans were reliant on DVDs or poker television shows. The World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker, High Stakes Poker, and Poker After Dark were a valuable part of every poker player’s diet. They devoured the shows and watched their favorite episodes multiple times.

In the Twitch era, you do not have to wait for Wednesday nights to catch a WPT final table. Pick up the PokerStars Twitch feed or hop on to Spraggy’s channel for a wild ride.

New Rock Stars

Who would want to watch people play video games? There’s at least one million people doing that right now. The activity might be a lo-fi form of entertainment, but in a way it feels natural.

When you were a kid, you would sit down and watch your siblings, friends, and neighbors play video games while you patiently waited your turn. It doesn’t matter if you were born into an era that ushered in Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Gameboy, Xbox, mobile gaming, or online poker, everyone had a similar experience with the building anticipation and excitement of having the “next game up”.

It’s human nature to be curious, especially about things we don’t know much about. It’s also natural to seek out others with similar interests, especially if those things are not mainstream pursuits. Twitch brings together like-minded people, which is why streamers playing Fortnite, Overwatch, and online poker have become popular daily activities.

YouTube vloggers, Twitch streamers, and Instagram influencers are the new rock stars. The most popular content creators on those platforms are the ones shaping youth culture. Twitch went from a quirky streaming service for video game nerds to a bona fide entertainment platform in only a couple of years. Tyler “Ninja” Blevins went from an average esports pro to the most-popular Fortnite player in the world virtually overnight thanks to his Twitch feed.

24/7 Product Placement

From a marketing perspective, the best commercials are the ones you don’t realize are commercials. Twitch is an amazing platform because if you have a popular brand, you will have a presence 24/7. There will always be someone streaming their latest session of Fortnite, Hearthstone, Counterstrike, or PokerStars.

Whenever PokerStars introduces a new game or format, you can hop onto Twitch and get a live demonstration from an authority you trust. Watching 6+ Hold’em on Spraggy or Lex Veldhuis’ stream is good way to learn the rules and basic strategy of short-deck hold’em, while hearing pros talk through the nuances of play. Short-deck is quickly becoming a popular game on the global circuit. Twitch is a new way to accelerate the learning curve on new games.

If you do not have a VR headset, then Twitch is also the perfect platform for you to experience what you’re missing. The other day, Spraggy played heads-up poker while Chris Moneymaker provided commentary. For followers without VR headsets, or those had never seen PokerStars VR before, the stream was a perfect product review because you got to experience it in real time.

Where are your friend tonight?

Kurt Cobain said it best, “Here we are now, entertain us.”

After a long day, you simply want to kick back and relax. If you are not a football fan or have watched everything in your Netflix queue, you might seek out alternative forms of entertainment.

Firing up your favorite Twitch stream is like hanging out with an old friend. You seek out something soothing and familiar, but not something too intense that requires your undivided attention. Background streams are optimal content to play while you eat dinner or play a couple of SNGs.

This is the very reason Ninja has so many followers. It’s also why poker fans love to sweat Spraggy or Lex Veldhuis. They are excellent at what they do, but maintain a level of professionalism while providing entertaining content and simultaneously engaging with the audience. It is a difficult task to do just one of those well. Yet these Twitch maestros pull off all three with ease.

With Lex Live kicking off today in Namur, Belgium, let us introduce you some of the online qualifiers currently heading to Lex Veldhuis’s Twitch poker extravaganza.

Meet some of the Lex Live qualifiers

For Lex Veldhuis and his Twitch community, today is a special day.

Not only does Day 1A of the €100K guaranteed €225 Lex Live Main Event get going tonight at 6pm, but a bunch of qualifiers are on their way to the Grand Casino de Namur right now, courtesy of winning packages in online satellites.

We thought we’d let them tell you their stories before we follow their progress throughout the week.

SANNE “Antim00n” BOMBEEK (BELGIUM)

Sanne Bombeek is a 29-year-old Emergency Room Nurse from Belgium, who lives close to Aalst.

Sanne “Antim00n” Bombeek

PokerStars Blog: Hi Sanne. What can you tell us about yourself?

Sanne Bombeek: “I go by “Antim00n” on PokerStars and Twitch. I would consider my work as my greatest passion. People say all the time that when you go into healthcare, it has to be a calling. In my case, it really is. I love my job and strive to get better at it every day. It does, however, leave me with little time to spend on hobbies. I currently spend most of my free time together with my husband, renovating our house and watching Twitch.”

PSB: How did you get into poker?

SB: “Through my husband. He played quite a lot during what he calls the “golden years of online poker” (10-15 years ago). After meeting me about 10 years ago, he scaled back on playing. He now casually plays low stakes PLO. He tried to explain the basics to me when we met but didn’t really have a lot of success! I consider myself a very casual player. I must admit that when I watch Lex’s stream most of my attention goes to the chat and I don’t really pay that much attention to the hands he’s playing! But apparently, I picked up some skills while doing that, as I managed to qualify for the main event.”

PSB: What made you take a shot in the satellite?

SB: “I got my buy-in for the satellite from winning a $100 giveaway on Lex’s stream some time ago. I think I put it to good use. If you’re looking for an accomplished poker player with some nice cashes and tournaments next to her name, I’m not your girl.

“I’m going to Lex Live to meet the community that Lex built and that I have grown to love. Playing a couple of hands of poker while there is just a nice bonus. Twitch is where Lex and poker came together for me.”

PSB: What makes Lex’s stream special to you?

SB: “I still remember the first couple of times when I got home from work and found my husband watching Lex on Twitch. I reacted as many others who are new to Twitch: What was entertaining about that? Why was he watching someone else play poker when he could play himself? But, I was willing to give it a chance.

“It didn’t take long before I made my own Twitch account and started being active in the chat and the community. I remember actually being upset with my husband when I came home from work one day, only to find out he had subbed to Lex without me knowing. So, of course, I had no other choice than to instantly sub too. That was 20 months ago. I recently asked Lex if he remembers which of us subbed first and he knew it was Rizn00. Something so small and trivial, but he knew. I think that tells a lot about Lex and the community he built. He really knows his longtime subs and truly cares about them.

“When I get home after a crazy shift, or when I have had a bad day and lost a patient, the community is there for me on Discord or in the Twitch chat. Lex sometimes says something small on stream like: ‘It sucks you had a bad day Antim00n, give our TwitchNurse a veldLUV wall chat’. For him, it might not seem much, but for me, it means a lot.

“I watch Lex to unwind, to relax with chat, to troll him about moppie buying his sweaters, to ‘f**k’ Croaks, to play golfing with your friends on ‘Blow Up Fridays’ (that did not end well for me by the way), and to have fun.”

PSB: We hear you’ve become a meme in the chat?

SB: “Yeah, the #modAntim00n campaign has become a meme in Lex’s chat. Every time I ask when he’ll finally make me a mod, he blatantly ignores it. Others picked up on it and will spam the chat and donations with #modAntim00n. We recently had a small breakthrough when Lex made me ‘Director of Shopping’ in his Discord channel after I found him some shelves to put in his office. One could say that’s the biggest achievement of my life. My husband wouldn’t like that though, nor would the people whose lives I’ve saved.

“I think the biggest achievement of my life is still to come: winning the Lex Live Main Event! That will give Lex no choice but to make me a mod! (I’m just kidding).”

LOSIF SPULBER (ROMANIA)

Losif Spulber is a 29-year-old from Romania who currently lives in London where he works as a Software Engineer.

PokerStars Blog: How did you get into poker?

Losif Spulber: “I’ve been playing poker since it was legal for me to do so, going so far as getting nice monthly cashes to help me through college. I stopped when I decided that it required a bit too much work, which I could just put into studying.

I then started watching Twitch poker about two years ago, which I find almost as exciting as playing. This, in turn, got me back to playing recreationally. It turns out that poker got a lot harder in the meantime!”

PSB: Have you ever attended a live poker event before?

LS: “No. Lex Live will be my first time playing poker in a casino!”

PSB: You must be excited?

LS: “I think it’s amazing, even if I bust out on day one. The prospect of meeting the poker community, hanging out with people I know online, it all sounds really fun!

“It’s also quite a surprise that I’m going. Without the qualifier, there’s no way I would have gone. Lex kept reminding us about the last qualifier on Sunday, but I wasn’t that keen on it as I’ve just been to Belgium, it’s a bit too sudden, and the event is way higher than what I usually play. It’s not about the money itself—I could afford it— but everything I’ve learnt about bankroll management from streamers such as Lex would make it a questionable decision, and to me, poker is all about making the right decisions. In fact, the qualifier itself was outside my regular buy-ins. But the satellite into the qualifier was €3.30 and I thought: ‘Hey, you know what? If I get to go to Lex live for that, I’m okay with it.’ I then won those two and here we are!”

PSB: What is it about Lex and his stream that has had such a big impact on you?

LS: “I simply love Twitch poker. I think it’s got a lot of elements that make it perfect for streaming. It’s so entertaining, the entire audience ‘invests’ into deep runs, and the hype when something massive is about to go down is insane. It’s more engaging than other games since the streamer can answer questions about the plays, offer advice, etc. And most importantly, you truly get better just by watching. You see what works and why, and if you take it seriously by always checking you’d do the same thing as the streamer, it works as good as actual training sessions!

“When it comes to Lex in particular, it’s the only Twitch community I’m actually part of. I think it’s a mix of unique things he brings to the table: diving deeper into strategy when he needs to, investing a lot in developing his platform, and most importantly not shying away from speaking out on any topic.”

MORE ABOUT LEX VELDHUIS: INTERVIEW INTRODUCING LEX LIVE | LEX WINS THE WARM-UP | BATTLE ROYALE: LIFE AT THE TOP OF TWITCH

JONOTHON BUTTERS (ENGLAND)

Jonothon Butters is a 52-year-old retired software entrepreneur from Stafford, England.

Jonothon Butters

PokerStars Blog: Hi Jonothon. Congratulations on winning a package to Lex Live! Are you forward to it?

Jonothon Butters: “The vibe from smaller buy-in, community-focused events make them very different from standard tournaments, and more fun. Plus, I’m taking the opportunity to attend the Darts in Rotterdam and bringing my son along for company. It’s perfect.”

PSB: How did you discover poker?

JB: “I started in 2006 after I retired, right at the beginning of the poker boom. Lots of money was being thrown around, and there was lots of excitement as it was all new, what with the TV coverage and great live events.”

PSB: What do you think of Lex and his stream?

JB: “I found Lex’s stream by accident and liked the open way he talks about the game and interacts with the audience. I slowly started watching more and got my appetite back for playing the game. I jumped into the €3 qualifier and laddered up to win the package whilst watching the stream. Incredible!”

PSB: Do you have much live poker experience?

JB: “Yes, I’ve played many events including WSOP, EPT, UKIPT and APPT events between 2006 and 2010. My largest cash was third for £36K at the GUKPT Luton in 2007. You can still find it on YouTube I think!”

PSB: What do you like to do outside of poker?

JB: “I’m a keeper of Marine Fish and Corals, and I love football and darts. My biggest achievements are 30 years of marriage and raising my two children. My son Harvey (27) will be coming along with me.”

GAETAN MACALUSO (BELGIUM)

Gaetan Macaluso is a 22-year-old from Liège, Belgium, currently studying for a masters degree.

Gaetan Macaluso

PokerStars Blog: Hi Gaetan. What can you tell us about yourself?

Gaetan Macaluso: “My main hobbies are the financial market, videos games and sports (running and football), at an amateur level.”

PSB: How did you first discover poker?

GM: “I started to play poker when I was a kid. I used to play 5-card draw with my grandparents, then moved to Texas Hold’em (for play money). I continued to play with my friends for fun until I turned 21, then I started to play for real money online.”

PSB: Do you have much live poker experience?

GM: “I’ve played three live events. The first was a €165 MegaStack which I also qualified for online, but busted at the end of Day 1. The second was a €30 event where I busted close to the money on Day 2. And the last one was a €100 tournament, which I won!”

PSB: What would you say are your biggest achievements?

GM: “I’m very proud to be a masters student, but when it comes to poker, I am proud to have won a $7 online tournament for $1,900,  and the live tournament in Valkenburg for €1,800. But honestly, I think my biggest achievement is yet to come.”

PSB: Are you looking forward to going to Lex Live?

GM: “I’ve been to Namur before so the place is not a great discovery for me, but I am very excited to go there this time. I think Lex has built a great community and has a very good philosophy. I enjoy watching his stream because you can learn lots of things but you also just chill with him and have a good time. I often see his viewers with his avatar at the tables on PokerStars, so they are proud to be in his community. He had a big impact on my mental game because he is very calm even when he loses, and also very organised. This is so important in poker.”

HASAN SEN (BULGARIA)

Hasan Sen

PokerStars Blog: Hi Hasan, what can you tell us about yourself?

Hasan Sen: “I was born in Bulgaria but I was raised in Turkey. I graduated with a degree in Management Engineering in Turkey, before moving to Portsmouth in England for my master study. Then I moved to live in Vienna.”

PSB: How did you get into poker?

HS: “I love playing and watching all sports. I was playing poker for play money when I was young, then started to play with real money when I moved to England. That was about nine years ago. I attended lots of low and medium stakes tournaments in Vienna. My biggest cash in a live tournament was about €1,200.”

PSB: How did it feel to win a package to Lex Live?

HS: “There are no words that could describe it. It was an incredible moment for me. I deserved that. The most important thing for me is that I’ll meet Lex, but it will also be a good holiday for me!”

Good luck to everyone playing at Lex Live. Stick with PokerStars Blog all week for all the latest features.

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With more than $7.9 million in cashes across a career spanning more than a decade, Charlie “JIZOINT” Combes is undoubtedly one of the UK’s most successful online players.

A couple of years ago Combes opted to take a break from poker in order to travel the world with his fiancée, Nicola. By his own admission, the game had passed him by upon his return, and things didn’t get any easier when the couple had twin babies seven months ago.

Now Combes is balancing fatherhood with working hard to get back to the top of his game. The results are speaking for themselves, as two weeks ago he chopped the Sunday Million for $83,813.

In a rare break from changing nappies, we were able to catch up with Combes. Check out that conversation below.

PokerStars Blog: When you first started playing, could you have imagined you’d still be at it some 13 years later?

Charlie “JIZOINT” Combes: “No, and I wouldn’t have chosen the name JIZOINT if I knew I was going to be a professional!”

PSB: Congratulations on the Sunday Million chop. Was this the first time you’d final tabled it?

Combes: “I’ve final tabled it twice before. I think it was in my first or second year when I was really bad at poker, and then I never got anywhere close.”

PSB: You’ve had great results in just about all the big online tournaments (Combes has three SCOOP titles and a Super Tuesday title, to name a couple). It must be nice to tick the Milly off the list?

Combes: “It was really nice, and the field is double the size than it used to be now the buy-in is $109. So that feels even better when you beat 10,000 people.”

PSB: How do you feel about the buy-in change?

Combes: “It’s much softer. It was quite soft before for a $215, but it’s definitely much softer now. You can noticeably feel a difference, even deep in it. I think there were only two or three players who seemed to know what they were doing properly.”

Grinding by Lake Atitlán in Guatemala

PSB: Were there any key hands that you remember en route to the chop?

Combes: “There was one hand that I sent to my backer on BOOM (check out that hand here). That was a massive bluff three-handed.”

PSB: What does your weekly schedule look like these days?

Combes: “On a Sunday I start at roughly 4pm. Before I was with my backer I was playing almost everything on my own money. Me and Nicola went travelling around the world for a year and my previous backer left me just before, so when I came back I started playing on my own money.

“I think I’d fallen behind the game a fair bit because I took a year off and I got lazy when I got back. I just started to lose lots of my own money. So I found a backer again who has made me do some study which brought my game back to a good level, I hope. His name is Michael Copley from Poker Winners. He’s really helped point me in the right direction in the last few months along with his stable analyst.

“He requires me to play four nights a week. He requires a certain volume a month, but he’s quite lenient about it all. To be honest, when I’m not playing I’m changing nappies.”

PSB: Did you and Nicola celebrate the score?

Combes: “Yeah, we went out for dinner the next night with the kids, but we had to leave early because they were screaming.”

PSB: What drives you at the moment?

Combes: “At the moment I’m working with a coach. I used to be really highly ranked in the world on PocketFives.com, and when I went away for a year I fell behind the game. I wasn’t using a HUD (heads-up display), and I wasn’t familiar with pioSOLVER, and all this stuff that all the whizz kids are using now. So I’m just getting familiar with all of this at the moment, and I’m studying to get to the top of my game again.

“My main aim is just to move up the rankings. I don’t have a specific tournament I want to win, I just want to show a consistent profit.”

Combes is currently ranked 12th in the UK, according to PocketFives.com

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