Mid-Stakes Cash Game Vlogging to $25K High Roller: Andrew Neeme
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Andrew Neeme has quickly become a household name in poker, recently crossing the momentous 100,000 subscribers milestone on his YouTube channel after vlogging for just over two years. Now, the mid-stakes grinder vlogger extraordinaire and member of Team Run It Up finds himself in unfamiliar territory — playing in a $25,000 buy-in tournament.
Before the event, Neeme was getting dialed in.
“Feeling a big mix of excitement and nervousness," he told PokerNews. "I’m trying to not get too carried away because it’s Day 1 here and I expect today to go fairly slowly. It’s hard to not look too far ahead and just get too far ahead of yourself.”
While he's not a total stranger to bigger buy-in no-limit hold'em tournaments, having played the $10K WSOP Main Event, it's still a bit of a jump from his regular mid-stakes cash games.
“This is 2.5 times the biggest tournament I’ve ever played; normally I don’t play $25K events. Normally I play cash games and the occasional $1,500 and the [WSOP] Main Event is usually the biggest of the year for me.”
Vlogger Freeroll
Unlike many other mid-stakes players who had to dry fire the PSPC, Neeme was gifted one of the coveted $30K Platinum Passes from PokerStars after co-hosting the YouTube Vlogger in Paradise challenge with PokerStars Pro Jeff Gross. They gave out two passes to the winning vloggers, Oliver Biles and Matt Kiefer, and Stars rewarded the pros with an entry of their own.
“We got a bunch of people involved in the YouTube vlogging world, and we had an awesome turnout of people that made submissions all over the world. As a result for spreading the vlogger love, [PokerStars] gave me a pass as well, so here we are.”
In terms of preparing for the biggest tournament he's played, Neeme is mostly relying on his extensive live poker experience.
"I have so much live poker experience and I’m going to definitely bank on that to carry me through some of the way at least.”
“I got into the lab a little bit here and there but I’m trying not to cram my brain too full of new things," said Neeme. "I think it’s tough to expect to just unleash all these new tricks that you learned recently. I have so much live poker experience and I’m going to definitely bank on that to carry me through some of the way at least.”
When it comes to playing in events above your comfort level, most pros make a habit of selling pieces, and the PSPC is no exception, even if it's a freeroll.
Selling Action, Expectations
“I sold 20% on Stake Kings, I’m giving away 1% to each of the five finalists from the Vlogger in Paradise competition, and swapped an additional five percent; one percent pieces here and there.”
Neeme is prepared for the long tournament grind and expects an unprecedented mix of players.
“This is my first $25K so I expect there to be a really interesting mix of people in this event. We’re going to have a lot of people that have literally zero dollars on their Hendon Mob sitting next to people that have tens of millions of dollars on their Hendon Mob and I expect to just try to navigate my way through a table that looks like that, and hope for the best.”
So far it seems Neeme is following his game plan of taking it slow, hovering just under starting stack at the third break of the day. And his fans will surely be on the lookout a vlog or more on the experience.