Iago Botelho Takes Down BSOP Winter R$100,000 Super High Roller for R$1 Million

Iago Botelho, a Brazilian player already famous for huge online wins, has captured his first major live tournament title. He won the R$100,000 Super High Roller at the BSOP Winter, taking home R$1,000,000 after defeating a field of 24 elite competitors.

The event, held during the BSOP Winter series in São Paulo, attracted some of the sharpest players in Brazilian poker. The buy-in of R$100,000 (approximately $18,000 USD) made it the most expensive tournament on the schedule. Only four spots paid, meaning the bubble loomed large from the start.

Bubble drama and comic relief

The five remaining players – Iago Botelho, Gabriel Tavares, Rafael Moraes, Fabiano Kovalski and Pedro Padilha – battled for hours on the bubble. Padilha, short-stacked for much of the stretch, was the eventual victim. The hand that ended the bubble was a polite check-down on a flop of J♠ 8♣ 2♠. Botelho bet the turn, and everyone folded, leaving Padilha to show his J♣ 10♣. Botelho held A♠ 8♠, and the river sealed Padilha’s elimination.

A lighter moment came when Botelho, with the action on him, sat motionless for more than four minutes. The press and other players grew confused until they realized he simply had not noticed his turn. He used eight time banks before the laughter cleared. “I don’t usually play these BSOP tournaments that only have the top Brazilians,” he said later. “But I started giving lessons now, and the feedback was very positive. The 100k was the first lesson I gave. That gave me confidence.”

After Padilha’s exit, Kovalski and Moraes were eliminated in quick succession, setting up a heads-up duel between Botelho and Gabriel Tavares, a fellow member of the Minas Gerais state team. Botelho described Tavares as “maybe even more technical” but said heads-up variance favored him. The final result: Botelho first, Tavares second.

Key facts

Player background: from online to live success

Iago Botelho, known online as “stek94,” already had a pair of massive online victories: the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event Medium in 2024 and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event High. Those wins were each worth six figures, but he had not yet won a significant live tournament. The BSOP Winter title changes that.

“It’s kind of unbelievable,” Botelho said after the win. “I came here just to play the team event, was going to do a food tour, but I couldn’t resist taking a shot at the 100k. It wasn’t planned at all, completely outside my buy-ins. To have won makes me very happy, speechless.” He dedicated the victory to his father, mother and girlfriend.

Why this matters for the poker community

While this is a live no-limit hold’em event rather than a video-poker contest, the story illustrates how players who excel at online poker can translate their skills to the felt. The discipline, bankroll management and hand-reading that Botelho refined in the online arena – skills that overlap with video-poker strategy – paid off in a high-pressure live setting. Video poker players who follow tournament poker can learn from his preparation, his composure under time pressure, and his ability to adapt to a field of specialists.

Source: Mundo Poker – https://mundopoker.com.br/noticias/bsop/bsop-winter-com-resultados-gigantes-no-online-iago-botelho-brilha-tambem-no-live-e-vence-o-r-100k-super-high-roller/