Alex Botez has turned another crossover poker appearance into the biggest tournament payday of her career, winning ClubWPT Gold’s Poker Champs heads-up event for $250,000.
The chess player and streamer came through an eight-player creator field to take half of the $500,000 prize pool. Botez defeated Erobb221 in the opening round, PaymoneyWubby in the semifinal and Sodapoppin in the final, completing a run that began as creator entertainment and ended with a six-figure poker result.
Poker Type previewed Poker Champs earlier this month, when ClubWPT Gold revealed the unusual format and Doug Polk’s role as host. The finished event delivered exactly the sort of crossover the concept was designed to create, but Botez’s performance gave it a more serious poker ending than some viewers may have expected.
Alex Botez Beats Sodapoppin for $250,000
Botez reached the final after beating Eric “Erobb221” Robbins Jr. in her opening match and PaymoneyWubby in the semifinal. That guaranteed her at least $125,000 before she faced Thomas “Sodapoppin” Morris in the best-of-three final.
She took the first match after making a jack-high straight and allowing Morris to bluff into her with king-high. The second match produced another bluff-catching decision, this time with the title sitting on the other side of it.
On an ace-ace-deuce flop, Morris moved all-in and Botez called with pocket tens. Morris again held king-high, and neither the turn nor river rescued him. The call gave Botez the match, the Poker Champs title and the $250,000 first prize.
For a player whose public career began at a chessboard rather than a poker table, it was a substantial result. Card Player described the payout as the largest recorded poker tournament score of Botez’s career.
A Chess Creator Who Keeps Turning Up in Poker
Botez is hardly new to the game. She cashed in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and later recorded two cashes at WSOP Paradise in 2024, including a run in the $25,000 Super Main Event. She also won a $550 side event at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
Her best-known poker appearances, however, have often come from the creator side of the game. Botez was part of the huge 2022 Hustler Casino Live creator game featuring MrBeast, Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan and Ninja, a session in which she finished $456,900 ahead.
That crossover between established poker and internet audiences has become increasingly important. Poker Type’s poker creator coverage now includes players who arrived through YouTube, Twitch and other competitive games rather than the traditional route through casinos and online poker rooms.
Botez fits that model unusually well because her competitive background is genuine. She holds the Woman FIDE Master title in chess and built the BotezLive audience alongside her sister Andrea before poker became a recurring part of their content.
Poker Champs Put Creators Heads-Up
The event used a straightforward eight-player knockout bracket with $500,000 available and no conventional tournament buy-in. Four players reached the money, with the champion receiving $250,000, the runner-up $125,000 and the remaining payouts going to the other finalists.
That made the individual matches unusually valuable for a creator tournament. Botez’s opening win guaranteed $50,000, her semifinal victory more than doubled that minimum payday, and the final was effectively a $125,000 heads-up match between her and Sodapoppin.
The format also gave viewers something different from a large-field creator tournament. Heads-up poker leaves nowhere to hide, and repeated matches make adjustments more visible. For creators with large audiences but very different levels of poker experience, that is part of the entertainment.
It also suited Botez. Chess and heads-up poker are very different games, but both reward concentration, opponent-specific adjustments and the ability to make decisions without teammates to absorb mistakes.
Creator Poker Is Becoming Its Own Category
Poker has spent years trying to turn famous internet personalities into occasional guests. Events such as Poker Champs suggest the relationship is changing, with creators increasingly becoming the actual product rather than an extra attraction attached to a conventional tournament.
That does not make creator poker a replacement for the WSOP, WPT or major online championships. It serves a different audience and gives viewers who may never watch a nine-hour tournament stream a reason to care about a heads-up match.
Poker Type has seen the same crossover through creators such as Abby Merk, whose career combines playing, education and content rather than treating those areas as separate jobs. Botez comes from outside poker, but repeated tournament appearances and cash-game sessions have made her more than a one-night celebrity guest.
A $250,000 win will not suddenly turn her into a full-time poker professional, and a creator invitational should not be confused with an open high-roller field. It does, however, give Botez another serious result to sit alongside the viral games and crossover appearances.
This time the chess streamer did not just bring an audience to poker. She took the trophy and the biggest prize.
