The Twitch.tv poker train keeps chugging along and interesting streamers are starting to flood the site. One such streamer is super grinder Parker “TonkaaaaP” Talbot. Talbot has been around for years — there’s a good chance you know him as tonkaaaa on PokerStars or schrutebucksss on Full Tilt — and he’s pretty much been slaying with millions in online earnings.

Even more recently Talbot has been putting a very entertaining poker stream that follows his exploits online.

It feels like almost every day Talbot makes another final table so there’s always a good narrative on the channel.

An Interview with Super Grinder Parker “TonkaaaaP” Talbot

www.pokerlistings.com: How did you get started with streaming?

Parker “TonkaaaaP” Talbot: Jaime Staples. Was friends for a few years with him and after a group of 6 or 7 of us got super into Last of Us, a PS4 multiplayer game we just became better friends and he eventually convinced me streaming was a good idea.

I also needed some form of motivation as my love for the game has been dwindling over the last few years. But Twitch has been working wonders for that.

PL: Follow up, how did you get into poker?

My dad and I were obsessed when I was about 15 years old. Watching WPTs with Mike Sexton commentating all the time. We used to record them and just watch them nonstop.

Then we made our first deposit of like 20 pounds on the old school WPT site. I say we, I was 15 years old… it was all him. From there we played a bunch of limit and eventually discovered no limit. I remember the first day playing .05p/.10p no limit.

We were like, “Holy shit dude you can win like 30/40pound pots. This is awesome.”

PL: What’s your favorite part of streaming?

I think making a solid read. And getting pat on the back for it is my favourite. Even some of the easier reads people are shocked by. It’s also insanely fun when we spam emotes.

Getting my buddy “1_conor_b_1″s face as an emote was probably the best decision I’ve made. We’ve lived together and played an obscene amount of poker with each other and we still play a lot together. Roughly once a day probably he’s on my table on something and we just all get our Kappa Conors out in chat. It’s definitely some of the most fun I have streaming.

PL: How often do you stream? Do you set a schedule?

I’m streaming roughly 4-5 times per week from 5-10 hours per stream usually. My rough schedule at the moment is Tuesday, Wednesday (evening), Saturday, and Sunday usually starting around 11am EST apart from Wednesdays.

I usually throw in another day as well although my schedule has been all over the place last month or so due to having a lot of friends in from out of town along with the Toronto Raptors making a deep run in the NBA playoffs. (I have season tix, don’t miss many home games).

PL: Do you ever worry about giving away too much information?

Definitely. Especially since a lot of the fields I play are small and I’m not an insanely unpredictable player. But like I said before Twitch has given me a lot of motivation to grind that I didn’t have before so

I feel like it will all even out down the road. It will also force me to adapt and change my game which is always good.

PL: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened on your stream?

100% winning the Thursday Thrill on stream for $109k. Was by far the most memorable thing and just wayyyyyyy too much fun. Not to mention the cash monies.

We even gave away a chair since people asking me to giveaway my chair has become somewhat of a thing on my channel.

PL: Who are some of your favorite streamers? Why?

My favourite streamers are all video game streamers. Goldglove is a variety streamer and does a ton of party/drinking streams with his friends where they get drunk and play random games (basically my dream).

Sjow and Dog are 2 absurdly good Hearthstone streamers that I watch frequently to try learn from, and Arteezy used to be my favorite for Dota 2 but he stopped streaming now.

PL: Do you stream anything other than poker?

Not yet. But the plan definitely is to at some point. I love games and play a lot of them albeit not extremely well. I imagine in the next 6 months I’ll probably mix in some games at some point.

PL: What’s the future of Twitch? Could you see yourself making more income from streaming than poker at some point?

I honestly don’t really know. At the moment I’m just loving the community we’re building and playing poker again. Even through this current downswing I’m on.

As I speak though we are getting our discord channel set up and these next coming months I plan to stream an absurd amount. I’m really looking forward to it.

PL: What kind of advice would you give to someone just getting started with streaming on Twitch?

Same as most other streamers. Get a schedule and stick to it. This is for sure the most important thing for a new streamer.

I struggle with it a bunch, but I’d say for someone who doesn’t have a friend in streaming like I did with Jaime Staples who could host me at the start and help me out then this is even more important. People need to know when they can see you, where than can find you.

PL: schrutebucksss on Full Tilt is the best online poker screen name ever. Discuss.

Man psyched that ya’ll like the office. I was 18 when I made that screen name and The Office was by far my favourite show at the time. Dwight Schrute is just simply the best. I think I’ve watched the series up until Michael Scott is no more like 3 or 4 times. Safe to say I was obsessed.

PL: Any shoutouts to loyal followers?

Shoutouts to all my pals that have been encouraging through the whole process so far, especially Mackenzie, “Mackb2” who has pretty much become my manager through all this and has been insanely helpful.

Shoutout to tolboof, NoseDoto, and Alch514 my best and most consistent mods. And just a general shoutout to everyone who have all been fucking awesome and supportive so far. I’ve been having a blast and like I said plan to ramp up my schedule and stream a lot more over the next few months so looking forward to winning all sorts then.

Give TonkaaaaP a follow (or sub) at www.twitch.tv/tonkaaaap. Find more Twitch Poker streamers to follow here:

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