Can the best streamers ever be the best players?


Looking at some of the best content creators poker results this year, is it inevitable that streamers have to choose between being entertaining or improving at poker?

Always one of the most interesting parts about a new year is some of the end-of-year results round-ups from professional poker players. Naturally, the most compelling ones were those who didn’t have such a great 2024. 

I appreciated this video from Mark Rubbathan aka ‘weazel_1991’ who I think is one of the best streamers of the last couple of years. He did not have a great 2024 by his own standards and he outlined in brutal honesty why. 

There is no particular blaming of variance, instead he put his bad year at the tables down to focusing so much on his content. Rubbathan streams on Twitch and regularly posts videos on YouTube. 

He pointed to a Kevin Martin quote where he said essentially that it is impossible to be at the top of the game as a content creator and also be at the top of your game at the tables. 

This is not the first time I have heard this sentiment echoed, in fact, Lex Veldhuis said essentially the same thing to me last year. It seems that the streamers need to draw a line in the sand and at some point decide where their priorities lie. 

A six-figure year from Bencb

The evidence against this claim may have come from Bencb, who revealed he won $440,000 at the tables last year. This was across a relatively small sample of 22 sessions, or 244 hours. 

Ben not only streams his sessions and makes YouTube videos, but he also runs a training site. Despite all these factors, he regularly plays the biggest buy-in tournaments online. 

Ben is famously hard-working, especially if you recall his previous comments about never going to nightclubs. So is this just a case of the streamers and content creators making up excuses? 

There are not enough hours in the day

poker
Was Kevin Martin right?

I actually think for the most part Rubbuthan is right on this one. The sheer hours that it takes to be a successful streamer and/or YouTuber must surely disqualify most humans from ever doing that well and also being an elite player.

This is not to mention the EV they sacrifice trying to be interesting/entertaining, the secrets they give away about how they play and also having to communicate directly with their chat while playing. 

Ben’s year might be amazing for most players, but for all we know that was a bad year by his standards compared to if he spent all of his time working on his game. Ben might be getting worse as a player because of all this time he is spending on his business, but he started as a much stronger player in the first place, so his D-game is still very profitable compared to most other content creators. 

It is true that a large number of elite poker players who frequent the Super High Rollers create content in some form or other these days, often for training sites. Almost none of them stream, however, which is the most intensive and time-consuming form of poker content. Also while they are elite players, a lot of them are not particularly entertaining or enigmatic, nor productive, in the content they create. 

To be an elite player, to even stay afloat in the biggest games, you need to be studying for hours upon hours every day. Streaming is a full-time job, especially if you create YouTube videos and manage social media effectively. Until the world creates an Ozempic miracle drug that eradicates the need to sleep, I think it is nearly impossible for the best streamer to also be one of the best players. 

Can streamers have it all? Let us know in the comments: