The World Poker Tour have stepped in with a bid to save one of poker’s classic major events. The Los…
Read More- Botez won three straight best-of-three heads-up matches to take the $250,000 top prize on the sweepstakes site ClubWPT Gold.
- The eight-player field was made up of content creators, including xQc, Sodapoppin, erobb221, and PaymoneyWubby, with none of them poker pros.
- Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Doug Polk called the action with cards-up commentary on his YouTube channel.
- The win tops Botez’s previous poker results, which include a cash in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.
Three Heads-Up Wins in One Weekend
Poker Champs ran as a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three heads-up matches. The four first-round winners reached the semifinals and locked up at least $50,000 apiece, so, as uspoker.com noted, Botez was guaranteed money the moment she advanced.
She opened her run on September 24 by knocking out Eric “Erobb221” Lamont Robbins Jr. That win pushed her into a semifinal against “PaymoneyWubby,” where she built a lead of more than 2:1.
Card Player recorded the deciding hand: she held K♥3♠ on a K♦10♠4♥ board, shoved after the 10♥ turn, and got called by Wubby’s pocket queens. The 2♦ river paired nothing for Wubby, and Botez moved on.
That semifinal win put $125,000 in the bank and set up a final against Thomas Chance Morris, better known online as Sodapoppin. Per Card Player’s hand-by-hand account, Botez turned a jack-high straight in the first match and caught Morris bluffing with king-high.
She closed it out in the second match by calling Morris’s all-in with pocket tens on an A♦A♠2♠ board and catching him bluffing king-high again. The 6♦ turn and J♣ river changed nothing, and the $250,000 was hers. ClubWPT Gold posted the winning moment on September 27.
A Creator Bracket Called by Doug Polk
Poker Champs played out on ClubWPT Gold, a sweepstakes poker site tied to the World Poker Tour brand that launched in late 2024. Each streamer broadcast the matches from their own channel, and heads-up specialist Doug Polk, a three-time WSOP bracelet winner who F5 Poker reported had signed on with ClubWPT Gold, ran the main broadcast with both players’ hole cards showing.
The pitch was eight big-name creators and no poker pros, which made the format an easy sell for viewers who follow these streamers everywhere else. If Botez’s run has you curious about where creators and recreational players actually put in their volume, our guide to the best online poker sites breaks down the options for US players.
Botez’s Poker Résumé Was Already Real
Botez is a Woman FIDE Master who grew up as a Canadian chess prodigy before building a streaming audience alongside her sister Andrea starting around 2020. Card Player reports their channels now count more than 2 million YouTube subscribers and 1.3 million Twitch followers.
Her poker history runs deeper than a one-off novelty event. Card Player’s records show she cashed the 2023 WSOP Main Event in 1,040th place, and at 2024 WSOP Paradise she finished 60th in a $10,000 event and 187th in the $25,000 WSOP Super Main Event for a combined $89,490. She also won a $550 freezeout side event at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $10,815.
Her biggest previous headline came in 2022, when she booked a $456,900 profit in a famous Hustler Casino Live session that also seated Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan, Alan Keating, MrBeast, and Ninja.
Heads-up poker rewards exactly the aggression Botez showed here, applying pressure with position and forcing tough decisions rather than waiting for premiums. If you want to understand why she could make king-high a losing hand for Wubby, our poker strategy guide covers the fundamentals.
Why This Result Matters
Creator poker events can look like made-for-stream spectacle, and often they are. This one still crowned a genuine player. Botez needed to win three heads-up matches in a row against motivated opponents, and she did it with reads and value bets rather than luck boxes.
For ClubWPT Gold, landing a $250,000 headline attached to a streamer of Botez’s reach is the kind of exposure a year-old brand pays for. For Botez, it is proof that the poker part of her poker content is more than a bit. The next time she sits down at a felt, live or online, fewer people will assume they have the edge.