Ethan 'Rampage' Yau started playing poker nearly six years ago, beginning, as most do, at the lowest live stakes offered: $1/$2. Yau would record his hands and discuss them on camera post-session before uploading the footage to his YouTube page. And, thus, the on-felt persona of 'Rampage' became unleashed on the poker world.
Now, after years of content creation and ensuing success, Yau finds himself preparing for a much, much bigger game. In less than a month from now, Yau will sit down at a televised table at the WPT World Championship Festival at Wynn Las Vegas to play a series of nosebleed stakes cash games: $100/$200, $200/$400, and $500/$1,000 – a far cry from Yau's humble beginnings.
Yau has set his total budget for the games at $6,000,000 and hopes to source at least a third of that from backers on the platform StakeKings. The staking package offers fans and viewers a chance to become further invested in Yau's performance--literally.
High stakes, high pressure, high expectations
The announcement of the staking package elicited a mixed response on social media. Some, like Rob Yong, think the pressure of the stakes might be too much for Yau. Others wonder if there's enough value in buying a piece of the package. When you factor in the 5% processing fee that StakeKings takes, it's tough for even the best players to return a profit for their backers.
Then, there's the issue of the lineups. As of now, none of the lineups for the games have been announced. There's a good chance that most potential buyers will wait until after the lineups become known to make their decision. And that makes sense, knowing the lineup can help investors ascertain, roughly, how Yau will fare against the competition. The added knowledge can sway their decisions one way or the other.
For the neutral fans in the poker community, the possibility of seeing Yau play with seven-figures on the table excites. Throughout his rapid ascension, Yau has become one of poker's most entertaining players to watch on a live stream. In terms of draw, there are only a few other players that can pull in the viewer numbers that Yau does--and there's a good reason for that. Take this hand from the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game for example. Is there anyone that doesn't want to see more of this?
How many other players are running that bluff in that spot? Not too many, and if you want to see more of that, you can grab a piece of Yau at StakeKings.
