Soon-to-be-former World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen Shows off his Poker Skills on HCL

With only a week or two left until he is replaced as world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen this week showed that he has the skills to turn his attention away from the 64 black-and-white squares and onto the green felt – the Norwegian superstar picking off a big bluff on Hustler Casino Live.

The 32-year-old, 5-times World Champion decided not to defend his title this time around, a match between Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and China’s Ding Liren currently in progress to decide his successor.

While that duo battle it out in Kazakhstan, Carlsen was appearing on ‘Creator Poker Night’, one of the most popular of HCL’s livestream cash games – pitting social media stars against each other.

Carlsen sat down at the $10/$25 NLH game with the likes of fellow chess player Alexandra Botez, video game streamer Nate Hill, TikTok stars Nick Austin and Bryce Hall, and poker streamer Mariano Grandoli.

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The stand-out hand in the video above saw Carlsen facing a triple-barrel from Nik Austin, a river bet of $3,200 into $7,375 posing Carlsen a question...did Austin have a hand or not?

Carlsen: 4♥ 3♥
Austin: A♣ J♠

Board: K♠ 8♣ 4♠ 9♥ 10♣

“You’re going three streets, eh?” said Carlsen, before delving into the possibilities. “There aren’t a lot of hands ... you have A-K obviously… there aren’t a lot of hands that you would just go three streets with air.”

Carlsen added: “I just don’t believe you at all, this is the problem,” before calling and finding out he was good.
The soon-to-be ex-World Champion didn’t have it all his own way, though, running into Botez and a nasty river...

Botez was once again the standout player in the show, posting her 5th win out of five appearances, though her $33k profit wasn’t in the same league as her monster $450k win last year, in a game that saw Phil Hellmuth chastised for angle-shooting an amateur.

As for Carlsen, his passion for poker seems to be on the increase, having played in the recent Norwegian Poker Championship held in Bratislava.

Having finished 25th for a €5680 cash in the same event in 2022 in Dublin, Carlsen was looking to go even better when he made it to day two, his run including this pot...

It wasn’t to be, however, as he eventually fell short of the money. However, it’s almost guaranteed that the less he appears on the chessboard, the more we will see him on the poker tables.