Twitch Streamer & PokerStars PA Ambassador Mark 'naigo1' Foresta Talks PACOOP
The prestigious PokerStars Championship of Online Poker (COOP) is currently running in a trio of US states in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey. All three PokerStars US-facing sites offer state-specific versions of the COOP, with each running concurrently September 10-27.
The Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP) guarantees $2 million across 69 events on PokerStars PA. The two-day PACOOP Main Event runs Sept. 26-27, with a $300 buy-in and $200,000 in guaranteed prize money on the line.
PokerNews, which is offering both live updates and daily recaps from all three US COOP series, recently caught up with PokerStars PA Ambassador Twitch streamer Mark 'naigo1' Foresta, who in early April became a sponsored pro of PokerStars PA!
Foresta inspires others to enjoy the game and being able to share streaming successes with his community.
Be sure to check out Foresta's Twitch channel here.
PokerNews: How excited are you for PACOOP?
Foresta: Every series that PokerStarsPA has put on has been amazing thus far but there is nothing quite like PACOOP and PASCOOP. This PACOOP feels like the first real opportunity I have had to work as an official ambassador for PokerStars as we were announced just a few weeks before PASCOOP earlier this year. After I saw this schedule, I knew this would be the most exciting poker series I would have ever been a part of.
What’s your daily grind like?
My daily grind starts with my first-day job meeting at 8 a.m. and I usually try to keep 8:30-9:30 relatively free to clear my mind and get my morning off on the right foot. I then work my day job till around 5:30 PM. I then put in a poker study session for about a half-hour and start my poker grind and my stream shortly after. If all goes well, the events keep us busy for a while into the evening and then I stretch and wind down. I make sure not to focus on mistakes from the session until the next day.
Which events are you most excited about?
The event I am most excited about in retrospect came on the very first Sunday where we got to play our first-ever $500 buy-in event, Event #13 the High Roller. I was lucky enough to take down second in that event for $10.6k and my second largest score on the stream.
Looking forward I am most excited to play the Thursday Thrill Trophy event. Keith “AccidentalGrenade” Becker and I have dual streamed every Thursday for over a year now and having the opportunity to play for a COOP trophy while joking around with our community is something I live for. Usually step one is to find the cash on my stream but on that Thursday it will be to last longer than my stream partner. I hope we both find a deep run and I hope that stream is our most exciting dual stream yet.
Do you feel your state has anything over the others currently hosting COOP events?
I love all the new streamers and content creators popping up here in Pennsylvania. People are really putting together amazing streams and it’s making it so easy to root for my fellow statesmen and states women. That being said, we have made some great friends in Michigan and their community is growing quickly. I think Twitch, Discord, and Twitter have just made COOP so much more fun to share in the excitement. I think our community in Pennsylvania is the epicenter and we are helping to influence Michigan and even to a smaller degree New Jersey players. I can tell how special our community is just by seeing how many people are excited to start streaming and be a part of it.
Any plans to attend and play the WSOP?
I originally did have plans to go to the WSOP this year. In fact, I even “lost” a bet with my viewer and close friend "ARJeff" that if I won the Sunday Special a few months back I would have to go with him. I am having so much fun playing online that I think I will wait a while before playing a large live series.
Anything else that you’d like to add?
I want to thank PokerStars for putting on a great series and supporting me to play some buy-ins that I would never have the opportunity to play without our partnership and I want to thank PokerNews for taking the time to cover the COOP series here in the states. COOP in the states has already exceeded a lot of my expectations and I am excited to see where online poker in the US is heading!