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Alex Botez won ClubWPT Gold’s Poker Champs, beating streamer Thomas “Sodapoppin” Morris in the best-of-three heads-up final to take the $250,000 top prize. The eight-player creator tournament carried a $500,000 prize pool, with Morris collecting $125,000 as runner-up.

Botez’s win came on Sept. 26 and marked the largest recorded tournament cash of her poker career. She first eliminated Eric “Erobb221” Lamont Robbins Jr. on Sept. 24, a result that guaranteed her at least $50,000, then beat PaymoneyWubby in the semifinal after building better than a 2-to-1 lead.

As we reported Sept. 19, ClubWPT Gold and Doug Polk had set Poker Champs as a $500,000 streamer heads-up event running through Sept. 26. The format guaranteed first-round winners at least $50,000, while semifinal losers received $75,000, the runner-up $125,000 and the champion $250,000; only the four semifinalists were paid.

Against Morris, Botez won the first final match after making a jack-high straight and picking off a king-high bluff. She ended the second match, and the tournament, by calling Morris’ all-in with pocket tens on an ace-ace-two board. Morris again held king-high for a bluff.

The ClubWPT Gold event was built around livestream creators rather than established professional poker players. The field included Botez, xQc, Sodapoppin, Erobb221, Tyler1, Emiru and YourRAGE, while participants streamed their own view of the matches and Polk hosted a separate cards-up broadcast with hole cards and webcam feeds.

Botez is a Canadian chess player and streamer who holds the Woman FIDE Master title. Her previous poker results included a $10,815 victory in a $550 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure side event in 2023, plus $89,490 across two WSOP Paradise cashes in 2024. She also won $456,900 in a 2022 Hustler Casino Live game.

Botez and her sister Andrea rose to prominence as online streamers around 2020. Their BotezLive YouTube channel had recently passed 2 million subscribers, while its Twitch account had 1.3 million followers.

Ethan “Rampage” Yau’s heated complaint about a fellow player’s tanking during a Sept. 19 Hustler Casino Live cash game was undercut by the stream’s own timing graphics, which showed Harut was not the table’s slowest decision-maker.

The confrontation came in a $50-$100 no-limit hold’em hand after Yau raised preflop to $2,000 with Q♠Q♣. Francisco Fragoso had limped with pocket fives and Harut entered the pot with A♥K♥; Nik Airball called Yau’s raise with Q♥J♣.

On the J♥3♥2♣ flop, Yau checked and Airball bet $4,000 with top pair. Fragoso folded, while Harut called with the nut-flush draw and two overcards, leaving about $92,000 behind. Yau then check-raised to $18,000 from a stack of more than $200,000, and Airball folded.

Harut had better than 2-to-1 pot odds to continue, but he spent about a minute considering the decision. Yau asked for the clock, saying, “He’s taking so long. We have 30 minutes left. It’s just the flop.” When Harut asked if he was serious, Yau replied that he wanted the clock because Harut was taking too long.

Harut ultimately folded, a decision that surprised commentator David Tuchman and viewers. Yau continued the criticism afterward, telling Harut, “I’m never playing with you again… you’re an absolute SNIPING NIT,” and demanding that he hurry up.

Yau also said Hustler Casino Live’s statistics would show Harut had taken the longest at the table. But the graphics showed Harut averaging nine seconds per decision, compared with Yau’s six seconds and Airball’s table-high 15 seconds. PokerNews concluded the available timing data did not show Harut holding up the game.

Harut’s displayed stream statistics also showed a 46% voluntary-put-money-in-pot rate and a 12% preflop-raise rate. He finished the game as its biggest winner, up about $72,600, while Yau was the biggest loser, down about $103,250.

CardPlayer’s Sept. 28 opinion column called Yau’s criticism excessive and characterized the conduct as rude and bullying. The column said Harut appeared flustered by the exchange before folding his draw.

The incident came after a strong recent run for the popular poker vlogger in livestream cash games and followed his World Series of Poker bracelet win during the summer.

Rob Wazwaz won the 2026 Wisconsin Poker State Championship at Potawatomi Hotel Casino in Milwaukee, collecting $253,521 from a 1,568-entry Main Event. The MSPT Hall of Famer’s victory was his second Major Series of Poker: The Tour title and brought his record total to 22 MSPT final tables.

The Sept. 24-27 event carried a $1,110 buy-in and $1 million guarantee, but generated a $1.52 million prize pool. The top 173 finishers were paid. Wazwaz entered heads-up play holding 34.2 million chips against Mark Cahill’s 12.84 million, then closed out the tournament; Cahill earned about $154,000 as runner-up.

According to MSPT’s event report, Wazwaz eliminated four of his eight final-table opponents. Brittany Spain finished 10th for $19,676 to set the official final table, while Mike Wilklow took third for $118,057. Wazwaz said he had concentrated on avoiding the mistakes that had affected him at previous final tables: “I was really focused this time around.”

The win was Wazwaz’s first MSPT title since the 2018 Canterbury Park Main Event, where he earned $109,375. Seventeen of his 22 tour final tables have come since that first title. The latest result also lifted his MSPT earnings above $1 million, making him the fifth player in tour history to reach that mark, while his overall tournament earnings rose beyond $3.4 million.

Wazwaz was inducted as the eighth MSPT Hall of Fame member in October 2021 after recording his 25th MSPT Main Event cash and a tour title. His $253,521 Wisconsin payday was his second-largest career score, behind the $358,346 he earned for winning an $800 deepstack event at the 2022 World Series of Poker.

The Wisconsin victory secured Wazwaz a seat in the $3,500 MSPT Championship Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Its $2 million-guaranteed Main Event is scheduled to run from Nov. 18 through Dec. 2.

ClubWPT Gold has left open the prospect of returning sweepstakes poker to Nevada after product changes, even as it pauses gameplay in the state beginning Sept. 28. The operator said it was optimistic that modifications could allow a future resumption, but gave no details on what would change or when a return might happen.

The pause follows what ClubWPT Gold described as shifts in the regulatory environment. Purchases were shut off immediately, and Nevada players can no longer enter cash games or tournaments after midnight Sept. 28. The company’s message characterizes the move as a pause rather than a permanent exit, though it has not identified the regulatory changes behind the decision.

As we reported earlier today, Nevada players have until Oct. 2 to redeem or withdraw remaining account balances. ClubWPT Gold has also urged Nevada subscribers to cancel memberships during the shutdown.

The departure reduces ClubWPT Gold’s sweepstakes footprint from 42 states to 41, according to PokerNews. The site has thousands of Nevada-based players and had expanded its presence in the state in recent years, including a digital billboard campaign on the Las Vegas Strip during June’s World Series of Poker.

ClubWPT Gold’s model has differed from a conventional online-poker deposit system. Players buy poker hand analysis or training credits, receive chips as part of the purchase, and use those chips in tournaments and ring games. A chip is worth $1 at cash-out.

The company had already reworked that approach in September 2025, removing free-to-play games and Gold Coins in favor of purchased poker-training credits that can be used to play and redeem winnings for prizes. USPoker reported that the change was intended to keep the product within the law in states tightening scrutiny of sweepstakes gaming, although some legal experts argued the revised model could still conflict with California law.

Nevada has legal online poker, but WSOP Online remains its only licensed traditional operator. It pools real-money players from Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania through the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. ClubWPT Gold’s Nevada decision comes amid wider regulatory attention on sweepstakes-style online gambling, while other sweepstakes poker sites also exclude the state.

For now, ClubWPT Gold has not set conditions or a timetable for a Nevada relaunch; its stated plan is limited to pursuing product modifications that it believes could make sweepstakes play available again.

Connor Hayward won his first World Series of Poker Circuit ring by taking down the $1,700 Main Event at Horseshoe Council Bluffs. The Kansas City cash-game player earned $76,797 after beating a 232-entry field, while the tournament generated a $351,480 prize pool and paid 36 places.

Hayward overcame John Ypma in heads-up play after beginning the match at a 2-to-1 chip disadvantage. Ypma, who had already won a Circuit ring and $102,650 at TCH Social Austin earlier this year, collected $50,593 for second. Matthew Riffel finished third for $34,304.

The closing hand came with blinds at 40,000/80,000 and an 80,000 ante. Ypma moved all-in for 700,000 with jack-ten of spades, and Hayward called with king-three offsuit. The board ran nine of spades, five of spades, five of diamonds, three of hearts and four of diamonds, giving Hayward the winning two pair.

A pivotal earlier pot helped swing the heads-up match. Ypma tried to bluff a paired board containing three cards of the same suit, but Hayward had made the nut flush. Hayward later said he had run well in the short session, picked up big hands and “kind of trapped” his opponent.

The title is a quick tournament breakthrough for Hayward, who had spent eight years as a full-time cash-game grinder based at Harrah’s Kansas City before starting to play events roughly six or seven months ago. He said he had earned more than $67,000 in tournaments before Council Bluffs, meaning the $76,797 first prize more than doubled that total.

His momentum had already included a third-place finish in the $700 Main Event at RGPS Golden Expedition Joplin a week earlier. Hayward said he came to Council Bluffs to spend time with a friend and intended to keep playing tournaments following the win.

As covered last week, the same Horseshoe Council Bluffs stop also produced Daniel Lowery’s 21st Circuit ring in the Big O event, underscoring the range of milestones at the series.