Twitch Team-Up: PokerStars Adds Michigan Streamer David Kaye to Ambassador Roster
PokerStars recently announced that popular Michigan Twitch streamer David “DavidKayePoker” Kaye has joined the ranks as an ambassador.
Kaye is the latest American online poker player to represent the brand. USPoker recently caught up with the the online poker pro about his new role.
“I’m very excited and honored to be joining the PokerStars ambassador roster as a streamer,” Kaye says. “There are many incredible streamers who dream of signing with PokerStars, so to be able to make this dream a reality for myself, I feel very grateful.”
PokerStars managing director Severin Rasset is pleased to see Kaye join the team and represent Stars in the Wolverine State.
“We’re proud to grow our team in the US and add David to our epic roster of ambassadors,” he said. “At PokerStars we have always championed new talent who are driven to grow, have great potential, and who create fun content, so we’re excited to welcome David.”
Pandemic leads way to pro status
The Mason, Michigan, resident may not be well-known for his play on the live felt, but Kaye’s online poker record is catching people’s attention.
He started playing poker over 10 years ago and when PokerStars went live in Michigan in January 2021, Kaye hit the cash games hard while he’s now grinding for higher stakes, his love of the game started when he began watching the World Series of Poker with friends.
“We would play $5 tournaments,” he says. “After that, I started playing micro and small-stake tournaments online. I started streaming in July of 2020 as a fun personal project to pick up during the downtime that the lockdowns had created.
“I had watched many different streams over the previous few months and thought it could be something fun to do until I was able to go play live poker again. “
Even though this was never a long-term plan for Kaye, the pandemic offered an opportunity to play professionally.
“Within a few weeks of streaming I loved it and told myself that if I ever had a reasonable chance to do this full time, I would love to pursue it,” he says. “Streaming and poker really came out of left field for me as I previously never had any plans to create poker content or play poker professionally prior to starting my stream. In September 2021 I pursued poker and streaming full time.”
As a Stars ambassador, Kaye also shares the ups and downs of his own play on social media. That doesn’t always include just the nice wins.
The day after my biggest cash game win of the year I decided to give most of it back #Ambassador pic.twitter.com/5GPesRiEFn
— David Kaye (@DavidKayePoker) December 9, 2022
Finding some early success
After playing years of small buy-in tournaments with friends, Kaye soon found some live tournament success. That started with taking down a $400 tournament at FireKeepers Casino in Michigan. He scored $15,923, helping to pad his bankroll for other events..
“I started taking it much more seriously after that point,” he says.
Since the Michigan online poker market opened, Kaye has won several $10,000 guaranteed daily events. Among other standout poker accomplishments, he won the first ever $250 Sunday High Roller in February 2021.
Twitch and future plans
For now Kaye plans on building his Twitch channel and continuing to work on his game. Currently, he has shifted gears to the cash game world online.
“My community can expect both my Twitch and YouTube channels to remain primarily cash game action,” he says, “but I do plan to be active during MICOOP and MISCOOP tournament series, along with other series main events and potentially other Sunday tournaments as well.”
As Michigan’s first major sponsored pro streamer, his outlook on the market is positive.
“I think having state regulated online poker is a major win for the players,” he says. “The state regulated market helps players feel more secure with their funds, as well as knowing that the online sites need to pass numerous background checks in regard to game security.”
PokerStars announced Friday that the company was close to merging the Michigan and New Jersey markets. That can only increase player and prize pools in the coming months.
”I’ve been very impressed with the cash game stakes available and tournament prize pools for a player pool that only consists of one state,” he says of his home state. “It makes me incredibly optimistic about the potential of the regulated online poker market in the US if more states continue to opt in, particularly into the interstate compact which would allow for multiple states to play together in the same player pool.”
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