Find Out How Karlencho's Bankroll Challenge Landed Him a GGPoker Sponsorship
It's time to profile another of the poker world's most exciting streamers who showcase their play to the world on streaming sites such as Twitch, and this time it's GGPoker's Karlen Aladzjan
The 25-year-old is yet another young European streamer on the GGPoker Stream Team and goes by the name Karlencho online. Not only does he stream poker, but also produces a ton of content for other streamers like OP-Poker and Easterdamnz with his business Karlencho Productions.
Humble Beginnins
Aladzjan was born and raised in the Czech Republic after his parents fled from Armenia after the Soviet Union split. When he was fifteen years old, he was introduced to poker by his uncle who bought him a poker chip set.
“My uncle taught me the rules and my brother and I started playing against him," Aladzjan told PokerNews. "At that time, I would say from 15 to 18, I was still going to school and my brother played online in that period. I would just watch him play as I couldn’t play myself. I just sat next to him and watched him play and that’s basically how I fell in love with online poker.”
Play With Karlencho on GGPoker
Aladzjan couldn’t wait to play online poker and immediately seized the opportunity when it swung by. ‘Karlencho’ moved cities with his parents at 18 and dropped out of high school.
“I was so anxious to start playing online. I thought, you know, let me try this for a year. And my parents were so open-minded, and they would never force me to do something I wouldn’t want to do.”
The Importance of Poker Study
Like so many starting poker players, Aladzjan was stuck in a loop of depositing money, but that all turned around when he started to read some more technical poker books.
From $10 to $1,000
The young and ambitious poker player started his stream in 2017 after launching his YouTube page and Instagram channel. He went through a break-up and rented a studio to pursue his streaming ambitions. He built a custom pc for streaming and he started a bankroll challenge on his Twitch stream where he wanted to grow his bankroll from $10 to $1,000. It took Karlencho about two months to set up the software to actually start streaming since there were no tutorials out there.
“No other streamers wanted to talk to me, except for Felix [Schneiders]. I had to learn everything from scratch.”
Aladzjan started Karlencho productions where he makes tutorials for starting streamers, streaming overlays, and he produces social media content for other established streamers.
“Other streamers started coming to me and asking me if I could do the same for them. I wasn’t in a position to do that. I just couldn’t see myself stream five times a week and then edit for myself and edit for someone else. But more people started coming and I thought: maybe I could get this done.” Other people started coming to Aladzjan and that was how Karlencho Productions was born.
His Own Production Company and GGPoker Sponsorship
But doing all these different things does take up a lot of time. Yet Aladzjan always manages to get things done on time. “I think it is smart time management and structure. I go to bed at the same time, and I wake up at the same time. I wake up at nine, I go through my morning routine, and then I start working on my videos. Then I do something else. Each hour is lined up for something. I have planned out what I’m going to do in the day. When I edit, I don’t have my phone. No distractions.”
Aladzjan is now sponsored by GG Poker, who recently signed Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, and he is part of the GG Stream Team. He came in contact with GG Poker after the bankroll challenge that started it all for him, despite never finishing the challenge. He was only a very small amount away until disaster struck.
“I found myself on $945 after six months. I reached that at day 99. I thought that this was destiny, haha. I wanted to make the most epic ending. I thought: what if I beat the guy that was the inspiration of this challenge? So, I messaged Felix [Schneiders] and he was busy as hell, but we eventually made it happen. We played heads-up cash and I was only $55 away from my goal. The epic ending was kind of a fail after I lost against him. I don’t know what happened after that, but I quit when my bankroll was back at $6 after about 1,5 years. So, I technically never lost the challenge!”
The GG sponsorship allows Aladzjan to play a little bit higher stakes than normal, especially with the GG Series going on. “I end up playing higher, even if I don’t want to. It’s probably the only time of the year where you can break your bankroll management a little bit. I also play longer sessions and I play longer sessions than normal. But it’s a special time of the year and I’m really enjoying it.”
You can watch Karlencho stream on Twitch on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
