Meet one of the busiest men in poker, Shivam Jain, who wears so many hats that one can’t help but wonder how he keeps up with himself. This multi-talented lad from Kanpur is a former professional DJ, an entrepreneur, and a passionate poker streamer. At the heart of it all, Jain is still a poker player.
Like many of us, Jain also started his poker journey with Zynga poker on Facebook during his school days and got serious about the game during his college days. He has been playing it professionally for the past two years. Better known as ‘Cyflopse’, Jain has transitioned beautifully over the past 1 year from being a professional cash player to a combination of cash and tourney player. Already crushing the space with regular cashes and even back-to-back Final Table finishes on stream, he has proved his worth to his viewers and we must say that he has amassed a large following of fans for his streams.
Jain is one of the most well-liked people in poker. He has parlayed his likability and engaging personality into becoming one of the most popular poker live streamers in the country. He has a lot of experience in live-streaming and is said to be one of the highest streamers in the number of hours. He aims to provide the best of streams and grow the game of poker in the country with pride and integrity. His highly educational and entertaining live streams recently caught the attention of Adda52 management who decided to onboard him as their first official streamer. He is now their dedicated streamer and is already streaming their ‘Fast & Furious February’ events. The big news is that the much-awaited Adda52 Tournament of Champions (ATOC) is starting today and Jain will be live-streaming all major events of the series that runs till 8th March and promises to be the ultimate battleground to compete with the best of the best and win from a massive 8 Crore GTD prize pool.
Ahead of the glorious ATOC series, we decided to connect with Jain to know about his journey as a poker player and streamer, his streaming plans for ATOC, and a lot more. Here are the excerpts:
OPN: Hi Jain, congratulations on becoming the ambassador streamer for Adda52! How does it feel to join Adda52 as their first official streamer?
Jain: Thanks a lot. Yes, it feels amazing to be the ambassador streamer for Adda52. It’s an achievement and I look forward to a lot of growth. Adda52 management has been very helpful and open to ideas for the growth of poker in our country.
OPN: Tell us a little about you, your journey as a player and streamer?
Jain: So apart from being awesome which comes naturally in a Kanpuriya ( Kanpur is my hometown). I am an Entrepreneur and a former professional DJ. My poker journey started from zynga poker on Facebook during my school days for fun. Later, during my college days, I realised it was something to get serious about as I saw players playing it professionally. When my childhood friend Sharad Rao shipped a big tourney on pokerstars.com, I started doing my research and studied poker from Youtube (6 years ago). For the past 2 years, I have been playing poker professionally and making a living out of it.
I started from a bankroll of 5k. I began playing 1/2 stakes and now I am grinding 50/100 stakes. It feels amazing that the past 2 years have been so productive for me. I have met some amazing personalities while climbing up the ladder. I started as a recreational streamer playing random games, streaming from my laptop in my room, in an utter non-professional environment more than 3 years ago. I am quite grateful to be where I am right now and it’s a long way to go.
OPN: You have a lot of experience in live-streaming. Please share your experience, top moments, and what attracted you to the streaming.
Jain: It has been a wonderful experience throughout, I have met so many amazing people through streaming, learned so much about poker and myself. Streaming is like a mirror that reflects your personality and your soul. I am lucky to receive so much love from the community.
TOP MOMENTS:
I strongly felt from the beginning that live streaming has a huge scope for both streamers and the poker community itself. It was definitely an opportunity area for me. Thanks to the COVID-19 that it got a big boom in 2020. I really enjoy streaming. Interacting live with people of and beyond our community and sportful learning doesn’t feel like work but a daily ritual. I have always believed in sharing knowledge, so I made streaming a medium to share my knowledge with everyone.
OPN: After joining Adda52 as their dedicated streamer, you have been streaming and playing all Adda52 key events. How has been the experience streaming and making deep runs across some of these events?
Jain: It has been such a heart-warming experience for me as I made so many deep runs all along February. My viewership has increased by more than 320% from the first stream. I am glad that my hard work is paying off.
OPN: The much-awaited Adda52 tournament of champions (ATOC) is starting today. How excited are you to play the series as a streamer? What are your thoughts on the series that promises to be warriors birthplace?
Jain: I am super excited to play my first series as a streamer. I will be live-streaming all major events of the glorious series. Adda52 has always come up with tournaments with exciting guarantees and formats. ATOC is going to be a mad and super fun series for all stake players. One word to describe this series is “LEGENDERY” and having super experienced people like Manish J. Adnani and Neil Eric Sequeira is just the cherry on the cake. They work so hard to make the gaming experience better every day for us.
OPN: What are the upcoming BIG events you plan to stream this year?
Jain: I will be streaming every week and all major Adda52 events live on various platforms. I want to put out content where we enjoy and learn at the same time. My main focus is on growing this game with pride and integrity.
OPN: Streaming in India is picking up pace with a new crop of poker streamers emerging. How do you see the future of streaming in India five years down the line?
Jain: Yes for sure! This is something we all need to work together hand by hand in order to make this even bigger than we can imagine. Streaming has given chess a massive boom all around the world and I want to contribute the same in Poker as well.
OPN: Poker streaming is fun but not easy. What, according to you, are the challenges in live streaming?
Jain: Streaming is a lot more challenging than it seems. A few pointers are like punctuality, preparation of stream can take almost a day. Being in front of a camera, talking to the camera, not a real person can be very challenging, we have to feel emotions and feelings for our viewers from just a text. But with time it gets easy and habitual so anyone who wants to stream should not worry as time and practice make us better every day.
OPN: Who are your favourite streamers you idolize domestically and internationally?
Jain: This is a very easy question for me. Sharad Rao, Richard Haridasoham, AATMAN (Anujkumar Kodam) are my favourite streamers as they have set a new bar to content making. Internationally I really love Charlie Carrel.
OPN: With the spike in interest for poker streaming in India, the game of poker has become more popular and has been growing at a faster pace. Your take on this?
Jain: I think it’s just 1% of the growth and we all will see that 99% very soon. All the ambassadors of this game are working on one goal of achieving that 99%.
OPN: Any message or parting words for aspiring streamers in India?
Jain: I would like to ask every streamer and upcoming streamer to hold each other’s hand, grind on one goal of growing this game of poker that we all love.
Thanks for your inspiring thoughts, Jain. We wish you all the best for your streaming and poker career!