Ethan “Rampage” Yau is one of the most popular poker vloggers out there, with a YouTube following of 316k subscribers and one of the most recognizable faces in poker today.
Rampage built his poker career rather swiftly, moving up from the lowest stakes live cash games to high-stakes in a matter of just a few years.
His astronomic rise was followed by a rather big downswing in late 2023 and early 2024, which apparently resulted in Rampage losing seven figures playing poker for the first time in his career.
To keep himself accountable, Ethan set a new bankroll challenge before himself, calling it Road to $1,000,000.
The new challenge started in March 2024, with Rampage making a decision to win back the million bucks he had lost playing poker and get back to his winning ways.
Seven months have passed since then, and we can now have some idea as to how the challenge is going and whether the goal is actually attainable.
But before we get to all that, let’s take a step back at what led to this latest Rampage poker challenge and how Rampage’s poker career has evolved lately.
Massive Stakes Lead to Massive Swings
Rampage’s vlog exploded during the post-Covid years and made him one of the biggest personalities in the game.
His rise through the stakes has been astronomic, as he was able to build up a substantial bankroll in a matter of just a few years, often playing above his actual means.
The poor bankroll management seems to have finally caught up with Rampage. In February 2024, he published a video in which he claimed a downswing of close to $400,000 in recent months.
As an attempt to remedy the situation, he bought into a super high-stakes Hustler Casino Live game for another $800,000, and ended up losing over half a million in a single sitting.
While he was probably one of the best players at the table, the massive stakes in this game once again produced variance that Rampage’s bankroll simply couldn’t handle.
After all, if you are going to buy into a poker game for $800,000, you better have at least a few million behind to back it all up.
Rampage Starts on a Path to Redemption
By his own admission, Rampage has made mistakes in terms of game selection and playing too high for his own good, which is why he decided to start his new challenge.
The Road to $1,000,000 is a challenge designed to win back a million dollars gradually and playing in games that actually fall within reasonable bankroll management parameters.
However, Ethan did not disclose the bankroll he was playing with, nor did he set any clear goals and boundaries in terms of bankroll management, which could be a pitfall.
After all, he has been known to jump into high-stakes poker games just because they seem “juicy” even when he could not afford it, and there is no telling if he will be able to stop from doing so again.
However, the challenge does introduce some accountability and should allow Rampage to make better financial decisions for himself and his YouTube channel.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
The Road to $1,000,000 challenge started in March 2024 and Rampage has been doing a decent job of posting regular updates on his YouTube vlog.
The first episode of the challenge saw him lose a further $25,000 on a Hustler Casino Live Max Pain Monday show, but subsequent episodes have seen him do what he does best.
Over the course of 21 episodes in the last six months, Rampage has been able to turn things around and get close to $300,000 in profit.
With a total of 103 hours recorded in the challenge, he has won over $2,800 per hour, which seems like a very decent win rate by any standard.
Of course, it is worth noting that 100 hours of play in six months is not a lot of poker, and that Ethan has been playing some tournaments and other games that seem not to be a part of the challenge.
Yet, for whatever it is, this challenge has reinvigorated Rampage’s game and allowed him to get back to his winning ways at the cash game tables.
You can check out the latest episode of his Road to $1,000,000 challenge below, and see all 21 episodes over at his YouTube channel:
Is Rampage Losing Support of His Fans?
While he has certainly had some big wins at the poker tables over the last few years, Rampage’s biggest win in poker has been his YouTube channel, which now has well over 300,000 subscribers.
A channel of this size is worth a lot, and Rampage has been able to utilize it quite well. He has been quite transparent about his YouTube profits and it is clear that he makes six figures a year from YouTube revenue alone.
If you watched his videos a year ago, you would have seen nothing but positivity and support in the comments, but that is no longer the case.
Many of the channel’s fans have started to doubt Rampage’s ability to win, and even his intentions with posting videos on his channel.
Looking at the bigger picture, it is clear that many of the fans are being very results-oriented, as not much has changed about Ethan’s game or his videos.
The only thing that’s been different in 2024 compared to some previous years is that Rampage has been struggling in the games, which is inevitable from time to time given the kinds of games he has been playing in.
The negative comments and lack of support from his fans must be quite painful, so we hope that Rampage can turn it all around, complete his Road to $1,000,000, and grow his presence in the poker world even more in 2025.
