Earlier this month, I saw a tweet from Brad Owen expressing his frustration with the sudden and sharp decline he was seeing in views of and engagement with his videos on YouTube. He’s not alone. Many poker vloggers have voiced concern that the numbers they used to notch have mysteriously plummeted. The algorithm has shifted, and not in their favor.
If you want a deep dive into just how bad things have gotten for poker content creators on YouTube, I highly recommend watching the video below by Nick Eastwood. He breaks it all down in detail, including the numbers, the lost momentum, and the existential questions vloggers are now facing.
I watched Nick’s video multiple times. The first time, I just sat there nodding along and commiserating. The second time, I watched to help make myself feel better because misery loves company. What I mean by that is that I’ve been there — and in many ways, I’m still there. The algorithmic confusion (as Tim Fiorvanti put it over at Poker.org) that Nick and his fellow YouTubers are feeling now? That’s exactly what poker media websites like Cardplayer Lifestyle first went through after Google rolled out its “Helpful Content Update” (HCU) in September 2023.
Whatever the YouTube algorithm is doing to poker vloggers is eerily reminiscent to Google’s “Helpful Content Update” of Q4 2023.
An algorithm shitting all over your hard work when you’ve done nothing wrong hurts a lot.
Believe me. I know.
My heart goes out to the vloggers. ❤️ https://t.co/zkpEAjknJ7
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) April 10, 2025
While ostensibly it’s the “gambling content for over 18s” that’s the issue with the poker vloggers, I believe that it’s something far more arbitrary at play and the “content for over 18s” issue is a convenient scapegoat. I say that not as a conspiracy theorist, but rather because “nothing seems to matter” as far as getting the situation to change.
So I watched Nick’s video again and took notes. Then I looked at my own analytics and reviewed all the work I’ve put into trying to reverse the tide. That all made me decide to “finally” go public, despite the risks. Because if we just choose to say nothing, it amounts to accepting this new reality as OK.
Things are NOT okay.
The Google Gut-Punch
Let me be clear: Cardplayer Lifestyle is not some fly-by-night operation via which I’m attempting to become a multimillionaire. I’ve poured over 15 years of my life into this site. I’ve told the story many times: It started out as a passion project that slowly and surely evolved and grew into a professional poker media platform. Cardplayer Lifestyle has been built on a foundation of hard work, authentic storytelling, and a commitment to growing the game of poker and entertaining and educating the poker community through quality written content. All I’ve ever wanted to do is make an honest living while pursuing my passion for and giving back to this industry.
Back in September 2023, seemingly overnight, our organic search traffic was gutted. Years of work, trusted content, evergreen articles, interviews, op-eds, and more just stopped showing up in search results. We hadn’t done anything wrong. But the algorithm didn’t care. Nor did it seem to care about the legions of other websites in the broader gaming industry and beyond.
As with most obstacles that come my way, I didn’t just accept the changes and wave the white flag. This is my love. This is my business. This is what I wake up each and every morning blessed and excited to do! So I fought back, as hard as I could. Since the HCU hit, I’ve thrown everything I’ve got at righting the ship. Here’s a sampling of the various things we’ve tried and comprehensive response we’ve had in the 18+ months since things went awry:
- Major permalink overhaul and crawl budget optimization
- Complete sitewide UI redesign (first time since 2021)
- Migration to a dedicated server (after 14 years on shared hosting)
- Removal of dozens of dead links (also a first in 14 years)
- Full optimization of images and plugins
- Over 75 newly published 2,000-word articles designed for human readers, but also specifically with Google’s HCU guidelines in mind
- Vastly improved site speed and performance metrics
- Took down two copycat scraper sites that had been outranking us
- Earned dozens of new, legitimate backlinks (the old fashioned way… I’ve never paid for a link)
And through all of that, we clawed back some of the traffic we lost. But not all. We’ve plateaued. The truth is, the algorithm still doesn’t “seem to care.”
I’m no data scientist, but it doesn’t take one to also notice that organic reach is similarly declining across social media platforms, too. It’s becoming exceedingly clear that today’s algorithms are “gonna make you pay” (literally) to “boost” your content just so that it has the same reach as you used to have before tweaks were made.
Meanwhile, advertisers do care but not in a good way. Their third-party SEO tools will indicate that a site’s numbers are slipping so they’re likely to start pulling out. New partnership conversations become harder. Metrics don’t lie, and when those metrics are down, a business is likely to suffer. But very obviously, those metrics don’t have context and don’t tell the full story.
I’m here doing that right now, in one of my more open and honest op-eds that really pulls back the curtain. At this point, I don’t feel as though I’ve been left with another choice.
The question is, will companies in the poker world be able and prepared to look past dropping metrics, think a bit more long-term, and still be prepared to invest in those who produce high quality content, have strong poker/individual brand authority, and good reputations even though the numbers won’t necessarily be where they’ve been?
I don’t know the answer to that, but I also know that hope, pride, and passion alone certainly don’t pay the bills.
Can the “Poker Content Industry” Still Survive?
The entire situation is deeply frustrating not just as a longtime poker media professional, but as a business owner who genuinely cares about the poker community. I’ve given everything to Cardplayer Lifestyle. I love poker, and I love telling its stories. But lately, much like Nick Eastwood’s very personal and relatable rant at the end of his video, I’ve started asking myself questions I never thought I’d have to ask: Is this still sustainable? How long can I keep this going?
I know that to survive in life and in business you need to be willing to adapt, to grow, to learn, and to innovate. I’ll be damned if I haven’t been trying my best, but thus far, it doesn’t seem to have moved the algorithmic needle. While fighting the aforementioned fight, I’ve tried hard to diversify revenue streams, lean further in to putting together our Mixed Game Festivals, etc., but when your core business has been rocked so hard… Let’s just say it’s been a rough ride for a long while now.
One-person operations like mine don’t have the resources to constantly “boost” our content, nor can we be reasonably expected to suddenly become insta-experts and know how to diversify what we produce across every conceivable media platform. Who’s to say that even if we magically do, that it’ll work, or that the game won’t suddenly change once more rendering us that much more acutely helpless and exhausted in the face of algorithmic dynamism?
Regardless of the medium, when content production is done right, there’s a natural and obvious recognition that said content adds value to and for those who consume it and is still worthy of supporting through sponsorship dollars. But will this axiom hold true if inhuman algorithms don’t give us content producers the metrics we’re “due”?
This is the climate that poker content producers are now operating in.
So, What Do We Do?
For now, I’m still here. Still trying. Still publishing. Still hoping that readers see the value in what we do. Still hoping that companies in the poker world see the value in partnering with media outlets that have consistently supported the game and the community for over a decade.
But, again, hope is not a business model. And goodwill, while heartening, won’t keep the lights on.
I can only speak for myself, but my gut tells me that all the vloggers out there and my fellow poker media companies have to be feeling something similar. We’re all trying to keep telling poker’s story, and in this algorithm-driven world, that’s getting harder by the day.
So, to everyone who enjoys poker content — whether it’s videos, podcasts, or articles — please do your part. Like. Share. Engage. Support creators, not just with views or clicks, but with recognition, sponsorship, and genuine appreciation.
We don’t — and SHOULDN’T — be creating what we create for Google, YouTube, and social media algorithms. We create for YOU.
