It’s way too easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of the poker vlogosphere in 2019.
Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, Jaman Burton, JohnnieVibes, and other pioneers of poker content creation have YouTube channels that can command hours upon hours of your time, but still leave you wanting more.
We’ve seen several newcomers emerge as high-quality content creators in the realm of poker vlogging over the past year, so let’s take a look at seven new vloggers beginning to make names for themselves who have the potential to become the next big thing in poker content creation.
OLIVER BILES
Can you imagine quitting your day job to travel the world, visit some of the planet’s most exotic locations and play poker? That’s exactly what 29-year-old Oliver Biles is doing, and he’s also giving us an excellent poker and travel vlog while he lives the dream.
Biles was one of the two winners selected in last year’s #vloggerinparadise contest, where Andrew Neeme and Jeff Gross issued a vlogger challenge: make a five-episode poker vlog series with the #vloggerinparadise tag, and the best entry wins a Platinum Pass to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship.
The entries were so good that Neeme and Gross ended up awarding two of Platinum Passes to a pair of very deserving winners, Biles and Matt Kiefer (who we’ll talk about later in this article).
Biles’ first entry for his YouTube channel was part one of five for the contest, and luckily for us he’s kept the vlog going. In the past seven months we’ve seen Biles travel to Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali, and (of course) the Bahamas for the PSPC.
Check out Biles’ debut video for the #vloggerinparadise contest, and be prepared to binge the whole series after that!
MATT KIEFER
The other #vloggerinparadise Platinum Pass went to Matt Kiefer, a 36-year-old family man from Indianapolis who, like Biles, started making vlog episodes for the contest and has keep it up well past the five-episode mark.
Matt tells us a little bit about his poker journey in this entry, with a cameo from Neeme from the PSPC. He then heads to Cincinnati for the $250k guaranteed Jack Poker Open and makes a stop for an order of the city’s famous Skyline Chili along the way.
It’s pretty tough not to root for Kiefer as he tries to make time for poker while balancing family life and a full-time job. Hopefully Matt will keep the vlogs coming!
MARLE CORDEIRO
Marle Cordeiro’s poker vlog quickly became the talk of the poker industry shortly after its debut last fall, and her satirical and sometimes twisted style stirs up plenty of controversy.
Cordeiro’s vlog takes us along on her journey up the poker cash game ladder, mixing in dark humor and commentary about women in poker, as well as hand analysis along the way. Marle’s YouTube channel is one of the fastest-growing poker channels, as she already has more than 23,000 subscribers in just six months.
Vlog entries like “Looking for a Poker Pro Boyfriend” and “Rebuilding My Poker Bankroll” have been the topics of spirited discussion on poker social media.
TREVOR SAVAGE
New Jersey poker pro Trevor Savage is a 15-year veteran of the game, and made his first foray into vlog production in an effort to snag a Platinum Pass in the #vloggerinparadise contest. The resulting product is the “Raising the Nuts” vlog, which recently went over the 3.5k subscriber mark and truly deserves to bring in thousands more!
Highlights from Raising the Nuts include cameo appearances from Trevor’s three children (Ava, Cameron and Andrew), who give us priceless impersonations of some of poker biggest personalities. The above entry sees the Savage children playing Kelly Minkin, Jamie Kerstetter and Bryan Piccioli, along with Andrew playing himself in an effort to get Marle Cordeiro’s attention.
Raising the Nuts is just too good to only mention one entry in this article, so here is some bonus coverage from the vlog. Check out these two entries for appearances by “Andrew Polk”, who gives us some Doug Polk-like hand analysis, as well as the Savage family traveling to the Bahamas for the PSPC with cameos from Joey Ingram, Andrew Neeme, Cordeiro and Oliver Biles.
Trevor Savage’s efforts with this vlog have been widely praised in the poker community, and let’s hope Raising the Nuts blows up in 2019!
MTL MAK
Just taking in the first minute of Poker Vlog #9 from MTL MAK lets us know that he’s taking this poker/vlogging/life thing seriously!
This Montreal-based poker player takes through a day in his life in this entry, and he has all of his goals for social media, poker, vlogging, exercise and meditation for the day planned out. The final goal on the list is “Date Night” with his girlfriend, and let’s hope that went well!
MTL MAK’s vlog shows us just how much work and dedication it takes to produce great content and play poker on a daily basis. He’s already up over the 1k subscriber mark after starting the vlog in December 2018, and if he keeps putting out this level of content we can expect that number to exponentially rise.
NATHAN MANUEL
Nathan Manuel is yet another vlogger that took a shot at the #vloggerinparadise contest, and although he didn’t win a Platinum Pass in the contest, he did finish in the top 5.
Manuel’s YouTube channel documents some of the different ways he tried to win a Platinum Pass. These efforts included trying to learn Japanese to compete in Jamie Staples’ #myultimatesweat contest, and at one point on Manuel’s YouTube channel we get to see Manuel competing in the #vloggerinparadise and #myultimatesweat challenges at the same time.
Neither of those challenges resulted in paydirt, but Manuel found another way to secure a buy-in to the $25k tournament in the Bahamas, winning his trip to the PSPC by taking down the Moneymaker PSPC Tour event at Run It Up Reno VII.
It’s great to watch Manuel finally get the Platinum Pass, and the final entry in the vlog is the PSPC Trip Report, which we take a look at above. The PSPC has come and gone, but let’s hope Manuel continues to give us content throughout 2019.
GREG FEENEY
We have one more #vloggerinparadise participant on this list, as Houston-based player Greg Feeney has continued to produce content well after the conclusion of the contest, with a YouTube channel that’s gaining momentum.
Feeney’s entertaining style really draws in the viewer, as he gives a look at his ventures on the Houston cash-game scene. We find out that Pot-Limit Omaha is extremely popular in Houston, and in the above entry we get some excellent, Andrew Neeme-style analysis of a big PLO session played by Feeney.
The latest entries in Feeney’s vlog are starting to draw thousands of views, and it looks like there’s a bright future in poker content creation for Feeney.
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