Jason Somerville is an American professional poker player from Miller Place, New York, who is often affectionately called The Godfather of Twitch due to him being one of the first prime-time poker Twitch streamers. Somerville is the founder of the Run It Up poker community, which produces poker content and even runs live poker events.
Somerville discovered poker in 2004 while watching the World Poker Tour on television with his father. Immediately hooked, Somerville began researching the game, before heading into the online poker world once he graduated high school. Somerville started his career playing freeroll tournaments online and had soon built a six-figure bankroll without ever making a real money deposit.
Using the alias "JCarver," Somerville quickly gained a reputation for being a top-level online poker tournament grinder. However, when Black Friday occurred in April 2011, Somerville was forced to leave the online poker world and focus his attention on live poker events.
Before switching to live poker almost full time in 2011, Somerville had already racked up some impressive results in the live poker arena. His first trip to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Ls Vegas in 2008 (when turned 21), saw Somerville cash in three No-Limit Hold'em events. In 2009, Somerville cashed in the €10,600 PokerStars EPT Grand Final for a then career-best $68,372.
His first six-figure haul came two month later when he was the runner-up in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout event at the 2009 WSOP for $194,004. Two weeks later, Somerville won $103,591 by finishing fifth in a $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Triple Chance event.
The 2010 WSOP saw Somerville twice come close to become a WSOP champion in high-stakes tournaments. He finished fourth in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up Championship and fourth in the $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event, which earned him $219,969 and $386,125, respectively.
A year later, Somerville captured the bracelet and $493,091 top prize in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.
That prize money remained Somerville's largest haul for four year until he finished fourth in a $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event in Las Vegas for a cool $1,327,352.
More recently, in January 2023, Somerville won an online tournament that awarded a WSOP Circuit ring to its champion, thus adding another piece of poker jewelry to his collection.
Jason Somerville's Top 5 Live Poker Results
Date | Event | Finish | Prize |
---|---|---|---|
Jun 2014 | $100,000 Super High Roller | 4th | $1,327,352 |
Jun 2011 | $1,000 WSOP No-Limit Hold'em | 1st | $493,091 |
Jun 2010 | $25,000 WSOP No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed | 4th | $386,125 |
Jun 2010 | $10,000 WSOP No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up | 4th | $219,969 |
Feb 2012 | $10,000 WPT L.A. Poker Classic | 6th | $202,910 |