Jaime Staples Talks Twitch Poker
What you need to know about Twitch Poker from Jaime Staples.
Twitch live streamer and poker personality Jaime Staples recently uploaded a video on his secondary YouTube channel which answers Frequently Asked Questions from poker players who wish to learn more about the platform.
Twitch Poker has grown leaps and bounds in a short amount of time and currently attracts thousands of poker enthusiasts daily who tune-in to watch their favorite players go deep in tournaments or compete in cash games. Because of this, poker players worldwide have become more interested in broadcasting their real money action in front of an actual live audience.
Staples’ experience as a high profile Twitch Poker personality makes him uniquely qualified to offer insights on how to make the most out of your poker broadcasting pursuits. In an effort to relay information that can assist the community, a TIMESTAMP outline of the November 24th segment is provided below, along with links to follow Jaime on Twitch and YouTube.
PokerStaples Twitch Channel
PokerStaples YouTube Channel
Jaime Staples YouTube Channel
Introduction to Twitch Poker
(0:00) What is Twitch Poker?
Jaime began live streaming on October 25th, 2014 and within weeks became the second-largest Twitch Poker show behind fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jason Somerville. Jaime’s thoughts on Twitch draw from over two years’ experience as a high profile poker personality, and are intended to inform poker players/fans who would like to know more about the platform.
(1:15) Twitch Poker & Making Money
Jaime explains the popular belief among personalities that one shouldn’t stream on Twitch for monetary gain. The reasoning behind this is that quality can often suffer when making money is a streamer’s top priority.
While this can be true, PokerStaples shares the unique situation he faced as a recently-declared poker pro when he began live streaming. Monetary incentive was needed to justify the amount of time (often 60+ hours per week) he was spending on-air throughout 2015.
Distribution may be Queen in today’s social media world, yet content remains King. If a broadcaster’s content doesn’t engage his or her audience, there will be no monetary rewards forthcoming either way. Staples tells viewers that he caught on to this early in his streaming career and was fully aware that his programming would have to cater to his audience’s needs for there to be any financial gain.
“They need to know that you care about them first, and that actually has to be true to you,” says the 25-year old Canadian native as he refers to poker fans. “That has to be the most important thing to yourself, and if it isn’t there’s going to be a lot of problems.”
(4:48) Revenue Sources
Jaime delves into the Twitch Partner program, which allows a poker player to monetize his or her channel by way of premium subscriptions, advertisements and donations.
(6:13) Twitch Cheering
Donations to Twitch streamers are evolving thanks to the new Twitch Cheering system that is currently in Beta rollout.
Over the weekend I asked Jaime directly for his thoughts on viewers purchasing Bits which can then be used to donate in real time to a specific channel.
“I think Bits are great,” Jaime told Upswing Poker. “They are a little bit more expensive than sending tips on PayPal but the amount is not really what is important to the consumer in tipping anyway. For some people $10 expresses their appreciation and for some it’s 50¢. Bits open up that 50¢ option (or less).”
Staples added that “along with it comes integration into the Twitch platform where there are loyalty badges displaying total amounts of Bits given, and this cool little animated triangle emoticon spins in the chat whenever a Bit comes through. It does hype up the crowd which in this case is in the chat. It really works like a cheer!”
(6:34) Twitch Donations
Donations are a big part of potential Twitch streaming revenue. Although the real money aspect of poker creates a different “vibe” when compared to video game streamers, poker fans do enjoy supporting their favorite personalities as well as the corresponding shout-outs received.
(7:55) Additional Opportunities for Poker Streamers?
(11:38) Business to Business
(16:27) Audience Focus
For any of the above opportunities to become a reality, a personality’s content must engage a large audience. Jaime candidly admits that a streamer can get caught up in focusing too much time on the business side of streaming at the expense of content and viewer outreach.
(17:13) Twitch Setup & Troubleshooting
Jaime Staples is not an expert on technical troubleshooting. He sought out advice from YouTube tutorial videos, the official OBS forum and the Twitch subReddit.
The basics you’ll need to stream include a relatively new computer, webcam, microphone and reliable Internet connection.
(19:35) Improving Your Set
The peripherals of a live broadcasting set can distinguish a personality from other shows. Lights, green screens, audio mixers, and other equipment can all be considered once a stream grows to a certain point. However, a poker broadcaster doesn’t need thousands of dollars in bells & whistles to compete as long as the content quality is high.
(20:38) Growing Your Channel
(24:55) Marketing Your Channel
(27:01) Additional Resources
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