
Hustler Casino Live has easily been the world’s best live poker stream over the last year, which was confirmed just recently when the show took down the “Favorite Live Stream” award at the annual Global Poker Awards.
While the high-stakes stream at HCL has been absolutely dominating the headlines in recent days, a fun Thursday night show saw a number of YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok personalities come together for a fun “Creator Poker Night.”
The game was played with blinds set at $10/$25 and buy-ins between $2k and $10k, and it was American rapper and songwriter Hoodie Allen, and one of the world’s most popular chess streamers, Alexandra Botez, who ended up as the big winners.
This marked the fourth consecutive win for Botez, who has shown incredible prowess at the game, previously beating the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Alan Keating for $456,900 in episode 185 when the stakes were a lot bigger.
Hoodie Allen, on the other hand, made his third appearance on the show and booked his second win, dominating the episode and showing off mad skills in a lineup made up of mostly amateur players.
Botez Continues to Dominate at HCL
The story of the night was certainly Alexandra Botez, the young Canadian-American chess player and Twitch streamer, who came into the world of poker just recently.
The $20,405 win on Thursday was her fourth in a row at HCL, as she remains undefeated in televised cash games, which is more than many other players who have appeared on the show can say.
In fact, Botez became quite famous in the poker circles in May last year, when she tore up a lineup that included the 16-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth, and took home nearly half a million dollars in profits.
That time too, the table was stacked with some TV and internet personalities such as Mr. Beast, but Alexandra managed to stand up to the serious pros in the lineup too and come out victorious.
Botez also helped run the stream as she hosted the pre-game interviews with several of the celebrities in the game, most of whom are personal friends of colleagues of the chess phenom.
While Alexandra still considers herself to be somewhat of a poker novice, the results we have seen thus far certainly indicate that the skillset she developed through playing high level chess may easily translate to the green felt if she decides to put in enough hours.
Ended up profiting close to $20k! Super fun table, and the tiktokers played much better than I expected 😊 pic.twitter.com/fn59lHDdp5
— Alexandra Botez (@alexandrabotez) March 24, 2023
Mikki and Phora the Big Losers, as Hoodie Allen Wins the Most
Long Island born rap superstar Hoodie Allen was the big story of the night, as he managed to bag a win of $36,585 and dominate the game throughout the stream.
The majority of all profits that Hoodie Allen and Alexandra Botez chopped up came from Phora and Mikki, both of whom we have seen on HCL before and whose results remain deep in the red.
Mikki has been one of the stars of the higher-stakes shows at HCL in the past, famously dropping over $600k in just two days last August.
spoiler alert had a pretty good night
+$36,000 😅 @HCLPokerShow pic.twitter.com/m7XbyiFgk3
— Hoodie Allen (@HoodieAllen) March 24, 2023
Californian rapper Phora, on the other hand, also made a few appearances on the show in the past, and lost just under $60k in his four previous showings.
On Thursday night, these two led the table in terms of VPIP and aggression and ended up losing a combined $55k, a significant loss in comparison to the blinds played in this particular game.
Keep the Creator Poker Nights Coming!
Despite the insane action we have seen on some of the other HCL streams in recent months, there is no denying that Creator Poker Nights have been some of the most exciting and fun to watch to date.
The mix of completely recreational creators and the handful of those trying to learn the ropes of the game create situations we could never hope to see in more serious games, while the personalities and charisma of the characters in question make the shows incredibly fun to watch.
Creator Poker Nights are also bringing thousands of new people into poker streams and promoting the game in ways that were previously impossible.
With some luck, HCL will keep the Creator Poker Night coming over the coming months and the likes of Alexandra Botez, Barstool Nate, and Hoodie Allen will get plenty more chances to shine on poker TV and show off their skills against each other and poker pros alike.