Andrew Neeme is headed to Calgary to spend some time streaming on 888poker. (Photo: Andrew Neeme YouTube)

Andrew Neeme has, once again, taken his show on the road.

The king of the poker vlogs has teamed up with 888poker to provide fans a weekend’s worth of live streams from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. From March 28-31, Neeme will be hosting a series of live streams of both cash games and tournaments, while showing off 888poker’s brand new Poker 8 client.

Neeme is no stranger to being in front of the camera. He’s made his mark in the game of poker through the production of poker vlogs and posting them to his YouTube channel, where he boasts over 112,000 subscribers. But this weekend, he’s not on a vlogging expedition – he’s planning on hours and hours of streaming. While some content consumers may lump vlogging and streaming into the same category, Neeme explains that there’s a considerable difference in the production.

“The biggest difference between the two platforms, for me, is that vlogging takes at least two full days and sometimes much longer to share an experience with the audience,” Neeme said. “Whereas streaming happens instantaneously, and then it’s done.

“When I’m making a vlog, it usually entails covering a full poker session, plus some combination of lifestyle content and b-roll. Maybe the session in questions takes place in another state. Then you have to consider travel, too. Then, you have twelve hours of editing to do. So, you could be looking at a four or five-day affair required to put one vlog together.”

“These streamers don’t know how easy they have it. Joking…kind of.”

It makes sense for Neeme to help 888poker expose their brand to a new audience, his appeal is worldwide and his travels have taken him all over the planet. But to put in the poker grind in front of thousands of viewers of over the weekend, he picked Calgary for a very specific reason.

“Calgary AirBnB’s are quite reasonably priced and it’s only a one hour difference from Vegas and a two-hour flight. More important than that: Kevin Martin is here,” Neeme said.

Kevin Martin, a former PokerStars sponsored streamer, is a fellow member of Team Run It Up and one of the most experienced poker streamers in the game.

“Spending time with Kevin is always recommended, and when you are trying a poker streaming experiment in his country, it’s best if he’s a short holler away.”

Neeme may want to make sure he’s able to spend time with Martin, but for fans all over the United States and abroad, spending time with Neeme and his fellow poker vlogger Brad Owen is what they are after. That has led to a movement in live poker in the form of Meet Up Games (MUGs). Neeme and Owen have been traveling all over the U.S. to host live cash games and the player reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.

“One of the best parts about hosting the MUGs is just getting face-to-face with the people who make up such a passionate part of your audience. They’re just stoked that you brought the vlog to their spot, where they always play,” Neeme said.”They’re excited to play some hands together, to ask questions about the vlogging process and to play in what, basically, feels like a home game inside the casino.”

As the Meet Up Games increase and their popularity grows, Neeme finds that in addition to the highs of interacting with fans, there are some challenges that come with going on the road.

“We’ve been doing a ton of traveling this year so far thanks to the MUGs, where it’s really toeing the burnout line,” Neeme said. “The pressure comes from trying to get everywhere and do everything. It’s exhausting traveling somewhere, hosting an event, trying to play reasonably good poker, having a couple beers with people while also remembering to film it all, flying back, editing everything for 12 hours, then getting right back on the road to do it again. But it’s such a unique spot that we’re in right now with this experience, that you don’t want to take it for granted. You want to keep the momentum going and get to all the spots where people want to be a part of a Meet Up Game.”

Travel was again on the agenda for Neeme with the opportunity to play some online poker on 888poker in Canada. However, as he mentioned, Neeme’s real grind has been on the live scene and with online poker in its current state in the U.S, Neeme knows he may be a little behind when it comes to an online grind.

“Even though I started my poker career by grinding online, it’s definitely not my specialty. There are many poker streamers that play better than I do in that arena,” he said. “So, even though my YouTube videos were never about, ‘Do what I do if you want to make a lot of money!’, it’s still awkward in some spots. I don’t want to play for too significant of stakes because I’ll probably just get mopped up by the real online grinders of the world.”

That said, he’ll be firing in plenty of tournaments over his weekend in Calgary. His intent is to put in long sessions, connect with his fans and see if he can’t take down a tournament or two.

“My tournament game is great! That is, compared to someone who’s never played a tournament before,” Neeme joked. “Compared to Kevin Martin’s, my game sucks. But I can probably do OK in a lot of low stakes fields, and maybe very occasionally book a win if I put in the volume. But most importantly, my chat-with-the-audience game is fucking strong. I can simulcast on both YouTube and Twitch, and monitor both chat boxes, and do it like I’ve been doing it for years. And I can rock a solid playlist on Spotify, that’s big too.”

He may be kidding about the strength of his tournament game, but there’s no doubt his ability to generate excitement among his supporters is one of the strongest in poker. Last year, he took home two American Poker Awards, one for Video Blogger of the Year and also the People’s Choice Award for Poker Personality of the Year. He’s nominated once again in the first ever Global Poker Awards for Vlogger of the Year.

When it comes to being nominated for a second year in a row, Neeme is both low-key and humble about his own nomination. He echos the sentiment that there’s room for both the category and the platform of vlogging to grow.

“I guess it’s more important what other people, who have votes, think of my nomination and this content creation and the community building that’s been going on in poker over the past couple of years,” Neeme said. “I think there are some people with votes who will look at it all and think it’s pretty dope. And there will be others with votes who have no clue about it whatsoever.

“A lot of the people probably remember my name from last year’s awards so they clicked it along with some other names they recognize. But not as a result of really paying attention to, what I think, is one of the dopest trends in poker. They don’t know that Brad Owen and Johnnie Vibes and Jaman Burton are out there doing the same thing and creating longform vlogs that are watched by hundreds of thousands of people.”

“I think it would be great to see poker rooms, as well as some of the mid-major live tours, at least have a chat with some of these guys. Let’s get everyone on the same page about what’s happening, who is passionate about what and how their stories can amplify one another.”

Neeme’s own story only continues to grow with opportunity from within the poker industry and the appreciation of those who follow his journey. His vlogging will continue and perhaps, after Calgary, he’ll be incorporating some more streaming into his routine “in the year 2055 when half the states have passed poker bills.”

“Seriously, though, there will be some fun streaming projects in the very near future that I’m looking forward to experimenting with,” he said. “But when it comes to poker it’s tough when you have to rely on outside forces to get it together.”

Follow Andrew Neeme on Twitter and watch his vlogs and streams via YouTube.