Andrew Neeme - Poker Player, YouTube Poker Vlogger

In this episode, Andrew Neeme, a professional poker player and popular vlogger, talks about how he started vlogging and shares the valuable lessons he learned along the way. Jeff and Andrew discuss how to balance time between marriage, vlogging, studying, and playing, and they speculate on developments in poker legislation. Listen in to hear Andrew share tips to follow when sharing your own content – and get some insight on what he wishes he would’ve done from the get-go.

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:00 – Introducing Andrew and his journey
• 01:30 – He went to Michigan State University and did an internship with a music production company in London and moved back to LA
• 02:50 – 2004-2008 he dabbled in online poker; around 2008 he started playing full-time poker
• 04:20 – He moved to Las Vegas almost 10 years ago
• 04:50 – Andrew’s popular Vlog
• 05:15 – He understood and enjoyed the video medium for poker; he liked that he could connect directly to the audience and do creative storytelling
• 07:00 – He started Vlogging in October of 2016
• 08:24 – Advice for vloggers
• 08:40 – You can film from your cell phone, and the hard part is the editing; he had no idea how long it would take at first
• 10:20 – He suggests hiring someone to do the editing from the get-go; personality goes into the editing, which is hard for him to let go of now
• 12:45 – How Andrew manages his time
• 13:25 – He films and edits all his videos; he doesn’t have a science behind his social media strategy and just posts when he wants to
• 17:25 – Social media apps can easily take time away from productivity
• 19:15 – Developments in online poker legislation
• 19:45 – Everything happens slowly but he feels there is still hope and possibility; people can gamble online easily if they want to whether it’s regulated or not
• 22:21 – He’d love to road trip around Michigan and livestream
• 23:05 – Andrew’s position on team Run It Up
• 25:28 – They help with management, messaging, and branding
• 28:00 – The Vlogger in Paradise Challenge and the Andrew’s biggest tournament
• 28:30 – They got submissions from around the world; the quality of the videos and personalities were amazing
• 31:13 – It’s the biggest tournament he’s ever played; there are giveaway winners and professionals playing side by side
• 33:41 – Tournaments always have variance; the key is not to get too carried away, it’s 2.5 times bigger than the biggest buy-in he had ever played
• 40:20 – Andrew’s relationship with his wife, Busi; they met at a friend’s gathering in Las Vegas and the rest is history
• 45:00 – Stake Kings is like crowdfunding for poker players; Andrew is there
• 47:50 – The other games Andrew plays
• 48:00 – He loves PLO, 1-2-5, and 2-5-10 game in Vegas; he also likes the short-deck he played at Run It Up Reno
• 50:00 – He hasn’t gotten into mixed games
• 52:40 – What Andrew does to decompress and what content he consumes
• 52:50 – Most videos are long format; he follows a few vloggers and doesn’t watch TV
• 55:50 – His main goal this year is to focus on being more present; when you make videos you’re always looking ahead
• 57:20 – At the time of the recording, he has 150 vlogs
• 58:30 – Andrew’s meet-up games and Twitch streams
• 58:40 – They aren’t planned in advance and it’s an approachable game for most people; they’re every man’s stakes and it’s more of a social game
• 01:00:45 – They had their first meet up game tournament in Austin; it’s nice to get face-to-face with people
• 01:02:05 – He’s done about 10 livestreams and can do it simultaneously through YouTube and Twitch; Twitch is more lenient about background music
• 01:05:15 – Andrew’s future plans
• 01:05:30 – He started the videos over a year ago; he says it’s hard to say how he’ll be making a living years from now but maybe the content will change
• 01:07:50 – He doesn’t know what the future of poker holds; he said it’ll be hard to replicate the boom of years ago but regulations would be great for poker
• 01:10:20 - People recognize Andrew in the poker scene and sometimes outside of the poker room; the work he’s done is like his resume and can be done in any industry
• 01:14:50 – Advice for new vloggers
• 15:00:00 – Uploading earlier in the week at a reasonable hour is better than uploading on the weekend; as far as length, he takes as long as needed to tell the story
• 01:21:05 – An unpleasant experience at the table
• 01:21:30 – He’s never seen any fistfights; Jeff saw someone take $2,500 worth of chips
• 01:22:40 – Poker seems to be pretty chill overall
• 01:23:00 – Poker or content creation?
• 01:23:30 – Vlogging is more exciting, but poker is the income source; the YouTube revenue is helpful and pays some bills and he tries to balance all channels
• 01:24:15 – It would be daunting to create content about another subject that he doesn’t know as well as poker
• 01:25:10 – Kids and doppelgangers
• 01:25:20 – Yes, someday, and yes, he knows he looks like Aaron Rodgers and the Verizon guy
• 01:29:30 – Income streams through social media and weed
• 01:30:00 – Merchandise, YouTube income, and partnerships provide for income streams; he smokes weed very rarely
• 01:31:25 – Impacts to Andrew’s relationship due to his celebrity
• 01:31:40 – The biggest downside is that everything takes a lot of time; he has to balance his relationship with everything else
• 01:32:25 – He and his wife started a podcast called the Tells Podcast; they talk about life, poker, YouTube, pop culture, and relationships
• 01:35:58 – His family likes to see what he’s up to on YouTube; he recommends people show their family the professionalism and passion they have for the industry
• 01:37:40 – Busi plays the markets and poker is similar, so they understood each other from the get-go
• 01:38:45 – Andrew’s thoughts on staking
• 01:38:57 – He sees it as a natural part of the poker experience and helps people move up in poker stakes; just like in other businesses, people get outside investors
• 01:39:39 – You can sell a piece of yourself to friends, colleagues, or other poker players while you get used to new poker stakes; he doesn’t have a lot of experience in that
• 01:40:24 – Ask each other as many questions as possible and sign a document hashing out all scenarios
• 01:41:50 – Money management
• 01:42:19 – When he first moved to Vegas he spent too much, now he manages his money better and isn’t into material possessions
• 01:46:10 – Poker as a zero sum game
• 01:46:20 – He looks at poker like a sport like golf; there’s tours, sponsorships, and it’s a spectator sport
• 01:46:55 – If you’re doing something that makes you happy, you’ll share that happiness with the world

3 Key Points

• If you want to be a vlogger, hire an editor early on, refine as you go, and just do it!
• There are so many ways to make a living now; there’s no telling what could be possible just a few years from now.
• Staking is like a business seeking outside investors; it’s great as long as there’s good communication between the investor and the investee.

Contact/Resources

• Partner - Party Poker
• Jeff’s Website – Jeff Gross Poker
• Andrew’s Vlog - YouTube
• Run It Up - Website
• Stake Kings - Website
• Andrew’s Website
• Andrew’s Twitch
• Andrew and Busi’s Podcast