According to Alexandra Botez she had editors scrambling to save what they could of this weekend's botched poker live stream.
The stacked lineup is present and the table talk in the highlight reel is entertaining if tinny. Unfortunately, the audio appears to be coming entirely from a camera mic. However, it is still eminently watchable and suggests what might have been.
Alexandra Botez is rapidly becoming a poker icon. The chess master and Twitch sensation took up poker during the pandemic. She quickly found herself patching up for WPT Global. In the last few months, she has been a major part of a whole series of cash game streams run by WPT Global. These included a ladies's game with Jamie Kerstetter, a Hustler Casino Live creators' stream with a full-ring of internet celebrities, and another HCL stream where she won the Aria-branded shirt off of Phil Hellmuth's back.
With this stream, the stunt casting escalated again. An adrenochrome hit of hype-able names, the GOATs of the chess and poker worlds — Magnus Carlsen and Phil Ivey. The rest of the table was to be made up of Botez, Qiyi "akaNemsko" Zhou, Alan Keating, and streamers Ludwig Ahgren and Yassuo.
The commentary booth was to be manned by Joey Ingram and Alexandra's younger sister, Andrea. Andrea who is an impressive chess player in her own right. However, at 20 years old, she won't be allowed to gamble in the U.S. until next year. Their commentary is missing from the final product.
Nemo described it as "the best crossover ever" and Ingram was on Twitter getting people excited for the "OOL list of players."
Coming through t?
Unfortunately, if you missed the live broadcast, the highlight reel will be all you will get to see. Hours of Phil Ivey playing with amateurs, taking part in the table talk, and cracking jokes has been boiled down to a two-hour commentary-free video with poor audio.
And yet, production troubles aside, it's still a lot of fun.
A healthy ratio of amateurs to pros keeps the styles of play interesting. It's still an opportunity to watch Magnus Carlsen and Phil Ivey square off. The table is packed with streamers whose career successes are based on their charisma and comfort in front of the camera. The players chat, gamble, and above all look like they're actually enjoying playing poker.
It has been two months of WSOP high-roller final tables. Each of them has been stacked with great players who glower in silence except for when they call the clock on each other.
This might not have been the stream we were promised, but it was definitely the stream we needed. Better still, Botez doesn't seem discouraged. She has promised more of the same. Next time with the kinks ironed out.
"Despite technical difficulties yesterday I had a great time playing with such a cool group!" Botez wrote. "Sorry for the scuffed stream, next time I promise it’ll be better."
Featured image source: Twitter
