High-stakes poker player and Twitch broadcaster Jason Somerville joins Team PokerStars Pro
2 Mar 2015
Somerville represents the latest generation of poker pros, raised on American poker television and videogame culture. The young American has parlayed his poker passion into a successful Twitch feed, where fans watch his real-time play, commentary and strategic advice on the popular video platform and game community.
Somerville has more than $6 million in tournament winnings and is known as "jcarverpoker" on Twitch, where he has more than 3 million unique viewers. He has been live-streaming his "Run it UP!" series to followers on YouTube and Twitch for the past 18 months. In his new role as a Team PokerStars Pro, he will launch Run it UP! Season 3 this coming Sunday, March 1 at 12.00 ET, which can be viewed on the PokerStars Twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/pokerstars.
This marks the launch of the PokerStars Twitch channel, which will host a wide variety of entertaining and educational content, including streams from other members of Team PokerStars Pro.
“I’m delighted to become a member of Team PokerStars and can’t wait to resume my Run it UP! series on Twitch,” says Somerville. “I’ll be live streaming for several hours this coming Sunday and I can’t wait to hear from, and chat to, a growing group of poker fans as the broadcasts continue. I’m also excited about representing PokerStars in online and live poker events in 2015.”
AMERICAN POKER AWARDS
In his first appearance as a PokerStars ambassador, Somerville will attend the American Poker Awards tonight (19.30-23.00 PST) at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, with his "Run it UP!" show short-listed for "Poker Media Content of the Year." A little earlier, from 16.00-17.00 PST, he will be on a "Players Perspective" panel at the Global Poker Conference North America 2015 – held in conjunction with the APA – discussing the "Live Poker ecosystem."
INNOVATION
The sponsorship deal is a great fit for PokerStars and Somerville, both of whom are leaders and innovators in the worlds of entertainment, technology and poker. Jason will now help to broaden the reach of poker to new audiences on Twitch and YouTube.
Head of Pro & Celebrity Marketing, Kirsty Thompson, said: “Jason is a unique proposition – a poker pioneer who has had great success both online and live, and brings something different to the table through the way in which he has built a popular live streaming poker show. I’m sure he will be a great ambassador for PokerStars and help to increase the level of interactivity between the brand and its players.”
CAREER SUCCESS
While Somerville has carved out a name for himself as a live-streaming poker evangelist, he also has a fantastic tournament record to back up his educational videos. His list of achievements includes:
$3.9 million in live tournament winnings
$2 million+ in online tournament winnings
Largest cash of $1,347,352 (4th, $100k Super High Roller, Las Vegas – June 2014)
World Series of Poker bracelet (June 2011) for $493,091
Spring Championship of Online Poker title (May 2010) for $234,334
Formerly sponsored by Ultimate Poker
Jason will play on PokerStars under the new screen name "jcarverpoker" (he was previously known as "Taknapotin").