Sep 12, 2019 After four years immersed in the poker industry, popular Twitch streamer and former Canadian Big Brother winner Kevin Martin is hanging up his microphone, as he revealed in a.
Poker streamer Kevin Martin announced he is retiring from Twitch and will also step down as a partypoker Team Online member effective immediately.
'The journey as a Twitch poker streamer is over,' stated Martin to his nearly 37,000 Twitter followers in a Tweet where he released a two-minute video explaining his decision.
Kevin Big Brother 19
It's been an amazing ride!
— Kevin Martin (@KevinRobMartin)'Why am I retiring? I think I accomplished the goal,' began Martin in the video. 'What I wanted to do on the platform I have accomplished.'
Martin shared the two goals he accomplished.
'Number one, I wanted to become a winning player,' shared Martin. 'I never became a super sick online crusher or anything but we did become a winning player. Number two, I wanted to entertain people and that void in my life has been filled as well. I am really enjoying some other things and I think I am going to take my career in a different way.'
'Why am I retiring? I think I accomplished the goal. What I wanted to do on the platform I have accomplished.'
Martin will forever be known as one of the pioneers of poker streaming on Twitch. He began streaming in 2015, the same year he came to the public eye in his home country of Canada as a contestant of Big Brother Canada where he finished in ninth place in the program's third season.
'I started in 2015, I probably had about $8,000 to my name and no idea how to play cards at all and we showcased the journey,' Martin said.
Kevin Martin Poker
PokerStars took notice of the Twitch boom and signed Martin to Team PokerStars Pro Online in May 2016. Martin was a member of this exclusive club for nearly three years until he quit in February 2019. While a member of Team PokerStars Pro Online, Martin returned to Big Brother Canada in 2017 and was crowned the winner of the fifth season after 69 days in isolation.
Big Brother Canada wasn't the only success story for Martin as he built up a huge Twitch following where he posts his profits publicly on stream. Last year, Martin booked around $220,000 in profit and he is up another $80,000 on the virtual felts this year.
After his break from PokerStars, Martin's journey with partypoker Team Online was short, lasting just four months having signed on with the online poker room in May.
'I’m hanging it up, I’m done,' said Martin. 'I’m resigning from Team partypoker, I wish those guys the best.'
Martin is keeping his future a secret but did share that he won't be hanging up his cleats for good as he will be still playing tons of poker on a recreational basis and occasionally entertaining the masses on Twitch.
'The journey is over,' said Martin. 'I'll be around. I'll still play poker still a ton, a little more recreationally and I'll be around on some Twitch streams once in a while. But for me as a content creator, the journey is finished.'
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19 May
The poker community has a new champion away from the felt as Team PokerStars Online Pro Kevin Martin took home the title in Season 5 of 'Big Brother Canada.'
The second time was the charm for the 24-year-old Calgary native who was bounced from the competition in Season 3 of the popular reality TV show, but was invited back to try again this season. The victory comes with a grand prize of $100,000, a $30K The Brick gift card, and a brand new 2017 Toyota ’86.
Arisa: With William's vote. Kevin, you're the winner of Big Brother Canada 5 #BBCan5 💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/jjOUBOnLv6
— Piggy 🐷 Martin (@thatpiggymartin) May 19, 2017Poker Prowess Pays Off
Martin leaned on his poker skills in beating out runner-up Karen Singbeil of Victoria and the other 14 house guests. The 16 contestants were holed up in the Big Brother house since March and allowed no contact with outsiders.
'Every morning I would wake up and do nothing but strategize and study,” Martin told the Toronto Sun. “I came here with one goal and one goal only - to make it to the end.”
And make it he did, receiving all nine jury votes in his favor. On the way to securing the championship, Kevin won power of veto four times, head of household twice, and was on the block three times.
Kevin's message from ig story pic.twitter.com/q3iYqLOp6v
Kevin Big Brother Cancer
— J (@juryscalendar) May 19, 2017All By Myself
Toward the end of the competition, Martin stated frequently his feelings of aloneness, lacking the benefit of camaraderie among his fellow houseguests. That's a far cry from his regular gig as a Twitch streamer and PokerStars-sponsored pro where his popularity level is high among fellow poker players.
“I haven’t had a single ally in the house for the whole second half of the game,' Kevin said. 'I am alone, isolated and targeted.”
During one of those moments of solidarity, Martin gave a bunch of shout outs to his poker homies, including PokerStars. He was admonished by Big Brother and told to 'stop talking about brand names.'
SHOUTOUT mom siblings @PokerStars@Pili_Nemer@jaimestaples@PokerStaplesPA@tonkaaaap@JasonSomerville@TwitchPokerhttps://t.co/Oed120wiGmpic.twitter.com/jsYKbUyGdh
— Kevin Martin (@KevinRobMartin) May 6, 2017Big Brother is Big Business
Big Brother was first shown in the Netherlands in 1999, becoming a huge hit when the popularity of reality TV took off. The concept has since been copied in over 54 countries, including the U.S. where poker pro and aspiring music mixer Vanessa Rousso competed in 2016, finishing in 3rd place.
Contestants reside together, competing in challenges that test their teamwork skills and typically result in forming alliances. House guests are voted off the show by each other until one is left standing as the champion. During the entire time, the housemates' moves are chronicled by microphones and cameras under the watchful eye of show producers - hence the name Big Brother.
Martin was evicted early in Season 3 in 2015, similar to entering a huge poker tournament and getting KO'd within the first few blind levels.
“I went home ninth out from the end,' he told Globalnews.ca.
#BBCAN5 After The Finale Live https://t.co/KS43shluCt
— Big Brother Canada (@BigBrotherCA) May 19, 2017Not so in Season 5 where he used that previous Big Brother experience and his poker strategy acumen in emerging victorious. Congratulations to Kevin for a job well done!