Influential vlogger
The World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced the signing of Brad Owen as its second ambassador. As part of his ambassador, Owen will perform the Tour at WPT live events and create content for the World Poker Tour.
“I’m excited to join the WPT team,” Owen said in a Tuesday press release. “I’ve been looking forward to making this the next big step in my journey to poker, and I think our partnership will help us both continue to grow the game of poker.”
Owen is a professional poker player, but is best known for his success as a poker vlogger. He began documenting his attempt to increase his bets about five and a half years ago by posting videos on YouTube. Since then, it has gained a considerable number of followers, reaching almost 600,000 subscribers to its channel.
In February, Brad Owen was awarded the Best Vlogger at the Global Poker Awards.
While the ambassador is an old hat in the world of online poker, it is something new for the World Poker Tour. Owen joins famed DJ Steve Aoki as the only two WPT ambassadors.
“Brad has proven to be one of the most impactful forces in the community and in gaming lately,” said Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour. “His genuine approach to sharing the game of poker has reached an incredible number of fans, and WPT is fortunate to join forces with him.”
Poker room owner
Owen also started poker earlier this year when he, fellow vlogger Andrew Neeme, and retired / non-retired poker professional Doug Polk bought a majority stake in The Lodge Card Club in Austin, Texas. The Lodge has over 60 tables, making it the largest card room in downtown Texas. It offers cash games and daily tournaments.
While the most popular poker variant is Texas Hold’em, Lone Star State has not really been associated with poker since the poker boom began about two decades ago. In the last two years, however, the state has had its own boom in poker, as card rooms have become very popular.
Poker is not explicitly legal in Texas, but is in a kind of gray area of the law. Operators cannot take a crawl, so card rooms charge membership fees and / or downtime. Owen’s room, The Lodge, charges $ 10 a day, $ 25 a month, or $ 200 a year for membership. Users also have to pay a fee of $ 10 per hour. Therefore, The Lodge makes money while running technically untraced games.
