Poker Twitter was abuzz last week after a couple of hands from cash game streams went viral. One came from a high-stakes stream, and one from as low as stakes get, so at least we know the community doesn’t unit-shame when it comes to reacting to streamed hands. No game is too small for drawing poker Twitter’s ire.
Both Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau and Abby ‘Abby Poker’ Merk made themselves the center of controversy with their antics. Were the reactions out of line, or was the criticism reasonable? Let’s dive in.
Rampage Goes on a Verbal One
Hustler Casino Live was having a $50-$100 no-limit hold’em game, and a pot developed that saw Rampage raise big preflop with pocket queens. He got action from three players, and after a J♥3♥2♣ flop, Rampage got a check-raise in after Nik Airball bet a player named Harut called. Airball folded, and action was on Harut, considering his options with A♥K♥.
Apparently fed up with Harut playing both too slow and too tight, Rampage laid into him verbally:
“I’m never playing with you again… you’re an absolute SNIPING NIT.” 😳😳
Did @rampagepoker take it too far, or does he have a point? 👀 pic.twitter.com/EX5hIsAvw9
— Hustler Casino Live (@HCLPokerShow) September 19, 2026
A sniping nit. Them’s fighting words in the poker cash game scene these days. Okay, maybe not quite that bad, but it did make me roll my eyes on a couple of different levels.
For one thing, Rampage wasn’t even on point.
“I want you to hurry up,” he said. “Hustler takes the stats. We can track how long you’ve taken and I would bet you’ve taken the longest.”
According to the stats posted, Harut had average nine seconds per decision. He was, in fact, closer to Rampage’s six seconds than Airball’s leading time of 15 seconds.
Rampage was being a rude bully. Harut was, presumably, a recreational player. I’m presuming that because he’s playing in a curated livestream lineup and was flustered enough by the exchange that he just folded the nut flush draw and two overcards.
VPIP Police are Lame
Maybe Harut was a slow nit, despite what the stats said. Maybe he got lucky a few times running up a stack to $100,000 and was on lockdown. If that was the case, don’t invite him back to your game. Simple as that. As one of the stars of the show, Rampage probably has a say in what the lineup looks like, so just use your pull to nix him from future games.
I’ve heard this sort of thing before from whiny regs who hate when someone with a clue comes into their game and shows down a few winners to run up a stack.
I say this as someone who gives plenty of action: being the VPIP police is lame. For one thing, selective memory plays a role here. You probably don’t have an exactly accurate gauge of what someone’s VPIP is just from sitting at the table with them for a few hours. And if you do, maybe they just got dealt Q-3 offsuit every hand for awhile. That stuff happens.
If the player is actually a sniping nit, that implies they came in with a game plan to play a certain way and executed that plan. This guy who I’ve never heard of and was flustered enough to fold a very good hand in a big pot probably isn’t that.
And if he is, you have a few options. Exploit the hell out of him by targeting situations where his range is weakest. Make the game structure less conducive to nitty play — think high ante, a la the recent High Stakes Poker stream with Andrew Robl, Eric Wasserson, and Mike Moncek. And if all else fails, again, just don’t invite him back to the game.
Bullying recreational players and acting like a spoiled child on stream ain’t it.
Abby’s Table Talk Backfires
We move way down in stakes to the $1-$2 stream (yes, really) at the Lodge Card Club in Austin. There, another poker influencer, Abby Merk, tried her version of speech play and it backfired spectacularly.
She went for a four-bet bluff shove holding A♦5♦, and after getting one fold, another opponent, Susan, was in the tank with pocket sixes. She asked if Merk had a pair, and she asked if Merk wanted action. Merk answered the latter question honestly, and Susan proceeded to call and stack her.
Was Abby Poker out of line or was it an angle?? pic.twitter.com/yCA4XjVH8d
— Lodge Card Club (@LodgePokerClub) September 21, 2026
Clearly a little bit upset but trying to tread carefully, Merk explained that she felt “weird” about the situation. She had answered the question honestly, and Susan had used that information against her.
“I thought we were friends, or at least closer friends than she may have thought,” Merk would later say in an Instagram post to her fans.
Friends Should Bust Friends at the Poker Table, Especially on Stream
The thing is, what if Merk was holding, say pocket kings, and said the same thing? Susan would have called with sixes and usually doubled her up. Merk was under no obligation to be truthful, and Susan was under no obligation to believe anything she said. That’s kind of the point of speech play. It’s a leveling war where both sides are fishing for information.
The only alternative explanation is that Merk genuinely expected her friend to soft-play against her based on whatever she answered.
But at that point, why are they even playing against each other on livestream with hole cards visible? Nobody wins in that context. The viewers get a lame product, the hosts are broadcasting something nobody really wants to watch, and it reflects poorly on the players.
If you’re going to play in a streamed game, I feel like you kind of have to play no-holds-barred poker, no matter the opponents. I don’t particularly want to bust my friends either, but it’s an unavoidable part of forming relationships in this business and then playing in some of the same games.
Where Rampage just seemed like he was being a jerk, I see this situation as a little more in the eye of the beholder. If you’re genuinely really tight with someone at the poker table, I could see being annoyed that they used the info you gave them against you. But at the end of the day, that’s good for the stream, so just make them buy you dinner and then try to out-level them next time.
Mo Nuwwarah is a staff writer for Card Player and a highly successful tournament poker player. Not only has he covered the game since 2013, but he also racked up north of $1 million in career tournament earnings. He won a WSOP bracelet in 2024, taking down the $1,000 online pot-limit Omaha six-max event, and recently added a second MSPT trophy to his collection. He also owns two WSOP Circuit rings.
