Kevin ‘Kmart’ Martin – Pure Entertainment, Passion, and up for a Challenge!
Kevin Martin, a reality TV star from Canada, known for his winning appearance on the TV show ‘Big Brother Canada’, challenged himself with one of the craziest bankroll challenges ever done. Besides this, Kevin Martin is also a respectable online streamer and is an ambassador for giant GGPoker.
In the past weeks, Kevin Martin has challenged himself to start with a bankroll completely from scratch. This would mean he had to abandon his full current bankroll. To make it all a little bit more exciting, he was going to stream around the clock to let his community feel the sweat alongside him!
How It All Started – Streaming 24/7
Just like almost any other professional poker player, ‘Kmart’ started playing at the micro-stakes online. Building a bankroll from scratch is something which divides the best from the rest, and ten years after the start of his poker career, he wanted to repeat this. All to show the people that you can actually build up a steady bankroll from zero, by showing heart and determination.
To start his quest for glory, he pawned off several items which would give him some roll to start with, eventually hoping to make $5,000, as that was on his balance when he started his professional career. His Twitch community could endorse the whole saga live on his channel, and when he was taking a nap, replays would be aired.
It became really a controversial topic in the poker industry; Why would someone start doing this as a professional poker player? But Kevin Martin is Kevin Martin, he already knows how it feels to have cameras pointed at him 24/7 as he competed in ‘Big Brother Canada’. Besides having his own Twitch Channel for years already, he also attended the successful and award-winning TV show Poker After Dark: Game of Gold.
Many poker professionals tried bankroll challenges as well, and many of them failed to do. Kevin Martin was aware it might turn out to be a failure, but the result might have been more disappointing than he would have imagined in his worst dreams.
Besides the actual poker topic, Martin took his stay in a small apartment, solely for his team being locked up and streaming his challenge. Besides the costs of the apartment, he also has a team around him which doesn’t work for free obviously.
500 Hours of Streaming
After 500 hours of streaming, Martin had profited only $500 during his challenge, while being up a bit more than that throughout the challenge. Not all the hours he spent on playing the micro stakes online, as he also took time to get some sleep, eat, and continue his business together with his team.
Poker from Zero is officially over.
— KMart (@KevinRobMartin) March 20, 2024
What a ride it was. Thanks everyone for watching, hope we entertained. 💙 pic.twitter.com/yvKkBDZWCT
Besides the many people criticizing him openly on social media channels, for not being determined enough, not crushing the stakes and whatnot; Martin realistically concluded the whole challenge had been a failure in terms of poker. ‘’We just didn’t get there. We just didn’t crush. I’ll take responsibility, I could have played better’’, he had mentioned in the media.
Three entire weeks, for the net rate of barely $3 an hour, Martin made it happen to keep the community alive and kicking. Regardless of what people conclude about his challenge, he managed to get a stream up and running for 500 hours straight, 500 hours!
The Final Conduct
When checking in at his stream, he was crushing it in poker tournaments going from $2 to $10 dollars a tournament, sometimes with some action sold as well. The peak of his bankroll went up to $1,300 but then suffered a bit of a rundown immediately after that.
In the end, the mission had failed. But this doesn’t stop Kevin Martin from taking up challenges in the future, we are certain of that. A top entertainer, with wise words as he stated that for most people it’s not even wise to start from scratch. Many players have busted their rolls, but as long as you keep your sanity and value money and take care of it!
Kevin Martin’s Poker Life
Being for a decade in the game of poker, Kevin Martin has had his challenges throughout his career! By starting off streaming in 2015, he rapidly made it happen to strengthen his game and work on his entertaining skills to make his stream channel worthwhile. In 2017, he appeared in Season 5 of ‘Big Brother Canada’ and ended up winning it, after being in the TV show in a previous season already.
After getting some pretty decent results in the live poker scene, in 2019 it became really silent around the person Kevin Martin, he had decided to retire from poker. Later he stated that he felt burnt out, uninspired, out of shape, etc. Not only did he quit poker, but also his social media channels and content production.
2020 can be named the year of Kevin Martin. He signed yet another ambassador deal, and this time with giant GGPoker. In 2021 he got married to his everlasting love Pili, and up until this day, Martin has been crushing it when it comes to content and poker online! His live career earnings to date show us that he has won over $470,000 in his career, of which $72,200 was his biggest live cash.
