'Hawk Tuah girl’ Haliey Welch makes live stream poker debut this Saturday

The Celebrity Poker Tour (CPT) returns this Saturday, August 31 for its fourth invitational event, with a prize pool of $50K up for grabs.

Among the 80 celebrities scheduled to play is Haliey Welch, widely known as the ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’ after her (R-rated) appearance in an impromptu street interview this summer went viral.

Welch will join 79 other sports stars, influencers and internet personalities for the CPT Invitational at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas. The tournament will be available on PokerGO - where previous episodes can also be found - and streamed live on the CPT YouTube channel and right here on PokerOrg, with a start time of 6pm PT.

Since her unexpected and rapid rise to internet stardom, Welch has formed a company, thrown out the first pitch at a New York Mets game, appeared onstage at concerts and taken part in activities for animal charities. Whether she has any prior poker experience is unknown but she has no recorded tournament cashes. Yet.

More NBA stars swap the court for the felt

The sporting world has traditionally been well represented in CPT events, and the fourth invitational event will be no different, this time featuring a significant contingent from the NBA.

8-time NBA All-Star Dwight Howard, Olympic gold medal-winning JaVale McGee and former NCAA champion Mike Bibby are among the basketball players confirmed as taking part this Saturday, alongside fellow ballers Mario Chalmers, Kendrick Perkins, Brandon Rush and more.

Social media star Bryce Hall, who won the last CPT event after defeating YouTuber Hila Klein heads-up for the $10K top prize earlier this month, is expected to return to defend his title. Other previous CPT winners include Princess Love, Qiyu 'Nemo' Zhou and Alexander 'Wolfgang Poker' Seibt.

Princess Love has enjoyed success in previous CPT events, and has over $280K in recorded winnings.

Audiences on the rise

With the addition of Welch to the line-up, the CPT appears to be going all-out to surf the zeitgeist and capture the attention of Gen-Z viewers. CPT Game Night III, earlier this month, is believed to have set a new bar for audience reach, with a million viewers reported across all streaming platforms.

Can this weekend’s event break the record? Will you be watching? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

^{Images courtesy of Celebrity Poker Tour/Tim & Dee TV}