Poker Twitter was abuzz final week after a few palms from money sport streams went viral. One got here from a high-stakes stream, and one from as little as stakes get, so at the least we all know the group doesn’t unit-shame on the subject of reacting to streamed palms. No sport is just too small for drawing poker Twitter’s ire.
Both Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau and Abby ‘Abby Poker’ Merk made themselves the middle of controversy with their antics. Were the reactions out of line, or was the criticism cheap? Let’s dive in.
Rampage Goes on a Verbal One
Hustler Casino Live was having a $50-$100 no-limit maintain’em sport, and a pot developed that noticed Rampage elevate massive preflop with pocket queens. He bought motion from three gamers, and after a J♥3♥2♣ flop, Rampage bought a check-raise in after Nik Airball wager a participant named Harut known as. Airball folded, and motion was on Harut, contemplating his choices with A♥Ok♥.
Apparently fed up with Harut taking part in each too sluggish and too tight, Rampage laid into him verbally:
“I’m never playing with you again… you’re an absolute SNIPING NIT.” 😳😳
Did @rampagepoker take it too far, or does he have a degree? 👀 pic.twitter.com/EX5hIsAvw9
— Hustler Casino Live (@HCLPokerPresent) September 19, 2026
A sniping nit. Them’s preventing phrases within the poker money sport scene nowadays. Okay, perhaps not fairly that dangerous, but it surely did make me roll my eyes on a few completely different ranges.
For one factor, Rampage wasn’t even on level.
“I want you to hurry up,” he stated. “Hustler takes the stats. We can track how long you’ve taken and I would bet you’ve taken the longest.”
According to the stats posted, Harut had common 9 seconds per determination. He was, actually, nearer to Rampage’s six seconds than Airball’s main time of 15 seconds.
Rampage was being a impolite bully. Harut was, presumably, a leisure participant. I’m presuming that as a result of he’s taking part in in a curated livestream lineup and was flustered sufficient by the alternate that he simply folded the nut flush draw and two overcards.
VPIP Police are Lame
Maybe Harut was a sluggish nit, regardless of what the stats stated. Maybe he bought fortunate just a few instances working up a stack to $100,000 and was on lockdown. If that was the case, don’t invite him again to your sport. Simple as that. As one of many stars of the present, Rampage in all probability has a say in what the lineup appears to be like like, so simply use your pull to nix him from future video games.
I’ve heard this form of factor earlier than from whiny regs who hate when somebody with a clue comes into their sport and exhibits down just a few winners to run up a stack.
I say this as somebody who offers loads of motion: being the VPIP police is lame. For one factor, selective reminiscence performs a job right here. You in all probability don’t have an precisely correct gauge of what somebody’s VPIP is simply from sitting on the desk with them for just a few hours. And if you happen to do, perhaps they only bought dealt Q-3 offsuit each hand for awhile. That stuff occurs.
If the participant is definitely a sniping nit, that means they got here in with a sport plan to play a sure method and executed that plan. This man who I’ve by no means heard of and was flustered sufficient to fold an excellent hand in an enormous pot in all probability isn’t that.
And if he’s, you’ve just a few choices. Exploit the hell out of him by focusing on conditions the place his vary is weakest. Make the sport construction much less conducive to nitty play — assume excessive ante, a la the latest High Stakes Poker stream with Andrew Robl, Eric Wasserson, and Mike Moncek. And if all else fails, once more, simply don’t invite him again to the sport.
Bullying leisure gamers and performing like a spoiled little one on stream ain’t it.
Abby’s Table Talk Backfires
We transfer method down in stakes to the $1-$2 stream (sure, actually) on the Lodge Card Club in Austin. There, one other poker influencer, Abby Merk, tried her model of speech play and it backfired spectacularly.
She went for a four-bet bluff shove holding A♦5♦, and after getting one fold, one other opponent, Susan, was within the tank with pocket sixes. She requested if Merk had a pair, and he or she requested if Merk needed motion. Merk answered the latter query truthfully, and Susan proceeded to name and stack her.
Was Abby Poker out of line or was it an angle?? pic.twitter.com/yCA4XjVH8d
— Lodge Card Club (@LodgePokerClub) September 21, 2026
Clearly just a little bit upset however making an attempt to tread rigorously, Merk defined that she felt “weird” in regards to the state of affairs. She had answered the query truthfully, and Susan had used that data in opposition to her.
“I thought we were friends, or at least closer friends than she may have thought,” Merk would later say in an Instagram put up to her followers.
Friends Should Bust Friends on the Poker Table, Especially on Stream
The factor is, what if Merk was holding, say pocket kings, and stated the identical factor? Susan would have known as with sixes and often doubled her up. Merk was below no obligation to be truthful, and Susan was below no obligation to imagine something she stated. That’s form of the purpose of speech play. It’s a leveling battle the place each side are fishing for data.
The solely various clarification is that Merk genuinely anticipated her pal to soft-play in opposition to her primarily based on no matter she answered.
But at that time, why are they even taking part in in opposition to one another on livestream with gap playing cards seen? Nobody wins in that context. The viewers get a lame product, the hosts are broadcasting one thing no person actually needs to observe, and it displays poorly on the gamers.
If you’re going to play in a streamed sport, I really feel such as you form of should play no-holds-barred poker, irrespective of the opponents. I don’t notably wish to bust my buddies both, but it surely’s an unavoidable a part of forming relationships on this enterprise after which taking part in in a few of the identical video games.
Where Rampage simply appeared like he was being a jerk, I see this example as just a little extra within the eye of the beholder. If you’re genuinely actually tight with somebody on the poker desk, I might see being irritated that they used the information you gave them in opposition to you. But on the finish of the day, that’s good for the stream, so simply make them purchase you dinner after which attempt to out-level them subsequent time.
Mo Nuwwarah is a workers author for Card Player and a extremely profitable match poker participant. Not solely has he coated the sport since 2013, however he additionally racked up north of $1 million in profession match earnings. He received a WSOP bracelet in 2024, taking down the $1,000 on-line pot-limit Omaha six-max occasion, and not too long ago added a second MSPT trophy to his assortment. He additionally owns two WSOP Circuit rings.
