The basketball world had Michael Jordan’s two separate returns to the hardwood. Baseball saw Roger Clemens return to the game after after a short-lived retirement from the mound. Even football fans got to watch one more season of Brett Favre after taking a year away from the gridiron.
Poker fans got their equivalent experience last weekend with Jason Somerville’s return to his Twitch stream.
After about 18 months away from the virtual felt, Somerville kicked off the start of what will be an intense streaming schedule for the 2018 WCOOP last week. On the Wednesday and Thursday before Labor Day Weekend, Somerville put together his first two streams since his extended time away, resulting in a profit of over $4,600 in tournaments alone.
we are live from the dirty basement!! it’s a day of the freaking week!! three weeks of streaming bliss ahead @runitup @PokerStars https://t.co/SC8PJ500mJ
— jcarver (@JasonSomerville) August 29, 2018
Despite the profitable start, the native New Yorker has no real expectations when it comes to his results.
“I was up a little bit more than that because [RIU Stats] is not tracking sit n’ gos,” said Somerville before his stream on Friday. “My expectations are to do well, but I don’t have any ‘Oh, I better make $25K or this would be a failure.’ It’s tournament poker, so anything can happen in a month, but I would love to walk away a winner, especially given how much we’re playing in buy-ins.”
They were his first two streams since the spring of 2017. It’s not for a lack of desire, but because he put most of his time into other projects at Run It Up, which should result in more quality poker content for poker fans.
“I haven’t played a lot of poker in the last 18 months,” said Somerville. “I’ve been working behind the scenes and working on Run It Up Studios and launching that and working on all the stuff we’ve done with the streamers, extensions, the new website, Run It Up Reno and all the stuff we’ve done with that.”
Those projects took up most of his time and forced him away from the virtual felt. He’s knocking off a little rust from both his poker game and his ability to stream, but he’s no stranger to the game and is confident in his abilities.
“I’m definitely a little rusty in my poker game,” said Somerville. “But so far, so good. I know where my strengths lie. 15 years I’ve been in poker at this point. I’ve spent a ton of time playing and a ton of time studying. With poker, in no-limit hold’em, I still feel pretty strong, even having been out of the game for a little while.”
There was more of a re-learning curve with his return to the microphone.
“Streaming, I was a little jittery,” said Somerville. “I wouldn’t say nervous. I was just a little excited to get back. And Day 1, I definitely felt a little more ancy. Day 2, I felt like I was back to normal. I was back in my normal rhythm.”
His streamed six tournaments in Wednesday’s return and cashed in two of them, earning $1,099 in a $215 no-limit hold’em turbo and $171 in the $162 Bounty Builder, as well as sit n’ gos and some mid-stakes 8-game cash games.
Wednesday served as a warm-up for Thursday’s action, where he upped the volume on his stream. He streamed 13 tournaments, a spin n’ go, some sit n’ gos and more mid-stakes 8-game cash games, mostly at the $20/$40 limit.
The mixed games are going to be a staple of Somerville’s stream for the foreseeable future. With the WCOOP schedule having a wide range of poker variants to choose from, he’s excited to be able to battle in the mixed games streets live on stream.
“I haven’t studied what to do in fourth street in stud hi-lo when this guy has a king and a four and I have an ace and deuce, you know what I mean?” said Somerville. “I haven’t studied so many of these spots and I love learning about it with fans on stream because I’m not sure what the answer is. I have to talk about it and explore it and hear what the fans have to say on it too.”
“I love playing mixed games and I plan on playing the razz, the HORSE, the stud hi-lo’s. I’m going to play all the mixed games WCOOP events and see how that goes.”
If you were happy with Somerville’s return and enjoyed the first few streams, you’re going to be very happy with the upcoming few weeks.
Starting at some time in the afternoon in the Pacific time zone, he will be streaming every day throughout the 2018 WCOOP schedule.
“I plan on taking no days off,” he said about the upcoming streams. “Streaming seven days a week. I’ll be out there grinding. I see no reason why I wouldn’t stream every single day. That’s how I used to do it and I feel like WCOOP, ‘tis the season to stream every single day. I’m going to be out there blasting.”