HCL Poker Stream to Host “Absolutely Epic” $1M Buy-in Cash Game
After the massive success of their streamer cash game last year, the team behind the most popular live poker stream is going for the fences again.
Hustler Casino Live’s Million Dollar Game Stream
In May this year, they will be hosting a $1 million buy-in live-streamed cash game, which will continue pushing the boundaries of poker live streams.
The game is expected to start with $500/ $1,000 blinds and will be straddled up to the ceiling - over $15 million could be on the table during the live stream.
Speaking to HCL co-founder Ryan Feldman, he said: “I came up with the idea soon after the Mr Beast game last year.
“Once that game ended, I started thinking about how to top that - so the idea of a million-dollar buy-in came to mind.”
After the Mr Beast cash game became the most popular and watched live-streamed poker cash game, Feldman can see the same success for this one.
“I envision this game being the most viewed poker show ever,” he continued. “I think there’s something special about a million-dollar buy-in; we will have so much hype around this game that it will be absolutely epic.”
Who Is Going to Play in the HCL Million Dollar Game Live Stream?
Despite being way out, Ryan Feldman confirmed to PokerListings that the confirmed players are:
- Doordash co-founder Stanley Tang.
- Sprout Social founder and HCL regular J.R.
- Crypto investor Handz.
- HCL high-stakes regular Nik Airball.
- Businessman and HCL regular Blank Check Ben.
- HCL high-stakes regular Charles.
It’s rumored that fan favorite Alan Keating will be playing in the game, but that is yet to be confirmed by the player that drives plenty of action.
Garrett Adelstein is one name that many poker fans hope to be added; the LA high-stakes poker crusher has been out of the live-streamed cash game scene since his highly-covered cheating dispute with Robbi Jade Lew.
Since then, Garrett has also had family commitments and would understandably seek a break from playing cash games. On his potential return, Feldman said: “We haven’t been in contact much, other than a few conversations - we’re not sure if or when he’ll return (to HCL).”
How Ryan Feldman Helped Build The Most Popular Poker Live Stream
It’s been a crazy journey for Ryan Feldman and fellow HCL co-founder Nick Vertucci, who went from being an organizer and player for the Live at the Bike! Poker stream to running the most popular poker cash game live-stream available.
Going from creating the poker stream to the biggest live stream that hosted world-famous names like Mr Beast, Ninja, and Paul Pierce must seem surreal, but for Feldman, it is all part of the process.
“We don’t set direct goals. We just try to build the best poker show in the world and think of new ideas to expand our business,” Feldman points out. “We just let everything fall into place - right now, our goal is for the Million Dollar Game to be the most-watched poker show ever.”
While this success-driven mindset might keep the blinders on for Feldman, does he ever take a moment and look back? Before a rough end with LATB, a similar poker stream he built up, the highest stakes usually teetered around $50/$100 and $100/$200.
Put simply: did he ever imagine running these kinds of nosebleed high-stakes cash games?
“It’s definitely pretty surreal - it’s crazy how comfortable people are these days in playing so big.
“We are very fortunate to know so many fun players who are comfortable playing high-stakes games.”
The brilliance of what Ryan Feldman and Nick Vertucci have created goes beyond nosebleed cash games.
It comes in the narratives and stories they have created. Whether it’s Ninja laughing in the face of Phil Hellmuth or Garrett Adelstein getting his ultimate revenge moment against Dylan, these moments make the HCL cash games so exciting.
How do you create these kinds of moments? Is there a method to the poker madness?
“I don’t have an exact formula; I just subconsciously know the formula in my mind,” said Feldman.
“I know what a good line-up looks like from a viewer's perspective and a player's perspective.”
And now, all eyes will be awaiting the line-up for the Million Dollar Game. If it follows the mammoth poker games of HCL past, this is going to be a poker stream not to be missed.
Ryan’s Ultimate Hustler Casino Live Line-Up
Before we let Ryan go, we asked for his ultimate Hustler Casino Live line-up, filling the table with anyone who has played on the show from streams past.
Here is the HCL All-Star cash game lineup:
- Mr Beast, holder of the fourth-most-subscribed YouTube channel
- Tom Dwan, high-stakes poker legend
- Ninja, one of the most popular Twitch streamers of all-time
- Reza, Los Angeles high-stakes cash game regular
- Krish, a businessman who appeared on High Stakes Poker
- Antonio Esfandiari, High Stakes Poker legend and WSOP, WPT Champion
- Mikki, a professional gambler
- Alan Keating, a businessman who plays in regular nosebleed private cash games
- Eric Persson, founder of Maverick Gaming and regular cash game player in Las Vegas.
The mix of personalities, poker styles, and interactions would create an unmissable live stream. Now we wait until May to see whether Ryan Feldman can pull it off in poker reality.
