Building the Pokercode Stream Team - The Start

When our head of content Milko asked me whether I’d want to write a piece for our blog on the Pokercode stream team, I happily said yes. I mean, in the end, who else should be able to describe better this very young, probably immature, but surely truly motivating passion-project of ours, that started some months back? Transparency and honesty is important for us, hence, I wouldn’t even want anyone else describe the early beginnings of the Pokercode Stream Team, and love to take the time for it in between meetings and other stuff that’s constantly going on here at the Pokercode. The Stream Team is definitely a passion project for all our team, let’s lose some words on it!

It all started with Q.

“Hello Johannes, my name is Quirin Heinz (27), pro poker player, coach, and streamer…” This is how the first step of the Pokercode Stream Team was made. Quirin 'Q_Poker' Heinz approached me on December 15th, 3:44 PM CET via email. He told me some nice and neat words about himself, his career, his community (or, “Qummunity”), his connection with the Pokercode, and disclosed some links to his social profiles. Little did I know back then that this would be the first step of so many, and ever-growing, steps towards growing our own stream team! A little over 2 hours later I provided “Q” insights into our study and play offerings and let him know our vision, values, and to catch up later on when he had taken his time to figure stuff out.

On December 18th, pretty much 72 hours later, Quirin showed some very positive reaction and disclosed his phone number, and the following phone call from December 19th proved to be decisive not just for Q as a poker player and streamer, not only for us as a global poker community, but also for the start of a new era at the Pokercode: We would soon sign our first ever Team Pokercode streamer.

Building a concept, starting a project

After the call, both “Q” and I were convinced that there was no way around working together. However, some work was still to be done by me, since we had never signed a streamer before, and everything we had had on that front was pretty much some ambassador deals with our friends and partners Kolja from Aktienmitkopf, Diana “Pokertussi” and Rene from Resellingmitkopf. Here, our partnership with GGPoker, which goes far further than just sharing a white-labeled skin within the best online poker platform, the GGPoker Network, once again proved to be extremely fruitful and collaborative. Our most important point of contact from the GGTeam, Brian, was of crucial help here right from the beginning. He shared his input and concept he had already built previously, and this flattened the ground for our stream team concept. On top, Brian connected me with GG’s content managers James and Simon, and they feedbacked me on my first “stream team” presentation, building the framework for the up-and-coming “Pokercode stream team”.

Next steps and signing our first ever streamer

Armed with a clear concept and tier-system, taking into account the size of the streamer in terms of viewership, follower-count, and watched hours, I got back to Q and could actually offer him a very transparent and open deal tailored towards rewarding the streamers’ growth which would be directly interconnected with his skill and progression both as a poker player and streamer. Because this is eventually what it all comes down to. Providing a very sound and sustainable environment for the stressful career situations for up and coming streamers and poker players, who feel attracted to the Pokercode, our vision, and mission. It is pretty natural that it didn’t take long until Q and I had come to an agreement, and that’s when we signed our first ever “Pokercode Stream Team” Member, Quirin “Q_Poker” Heinz.

Applications coming in, building a threshold

Shortly after Q’s announcement, his 'Qummunity' truly showed a very positive and hyped reaction to the partnership. We sent Fedor on stream to Q, started to shoot more professional assets, and had a videomaker, Q’s best friend Wilko, visit him for quite some days. However, even more importantly, the idea of the “Pokercode Stream Team” sparked and raised within the german streamer community, and, pretty much overnight, we received quite some applications and leads by other uprising DACH-streamer talents. We had to wrap our heads around the idea of how to sustainably and smartly grow a cool team, that shares our vision and values, stands behind the Pokercode fully, and that we can “imagine doing some project such as the grindhouse” with. Truly some harsh criteria, but in the next blog part, you will see that we, in my opinion, definitely managed to find the perfect fits to accomplish that mission.

Thanks for reading part 1, 'The built', of the Pokercode stream team. We are truly hyped and passionate about the project, and I cannot wait to write more about it so that we land at today’s status quo and can actually give you the full and bigger picture of this brand new project. Accompanying young talent by providing a sustainable, trusted, and professional community environment is what we are passionate about. I'm really happy, that we found yet another creative way of turning our vision into our mission, in this instance by building our very own Pokercode stream team.

Greetings from Vienna and thanks for reading! How did you like it? Feel free to send me an email to johannes@pokercode.com

Johannes from the Pokercode-Team

CEO & Co-Founder

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