Hawk Tuah girl, Hailey Welch smiles in a star-spangled cowboy hat, surrounded by poker chips and a microphone.

Here on the anniversary of Hawk Tuah girl’s ascendancy to the viral sensation that swept the Internet, we pause to inform you of a surprising turn of events: she’s a poker player now. Hailey Welch took the Internet by storm with a sexual reference that came out of nowhere and that captured the hearts of men around the world. She was cute, she was unembarrassed about a taboo topic, and she had great energy.

But can she play cards? Is the Hawk Tuah Girl poker journey going to be just as successful? Well, she certainly knows how to do the unexpected. That can be a huge plus at the poker tables.

The Journey So Far – A Quick Recap

Hawk Tuah girl, Hailey Welch, interviewed on the street while her friend whispers and laughs beside her.

Some memes flare up and then burn out fast, but Ms. Tuah has had quite a bit of staying power. After her street interview video blew up, she was snapped up fast by a team of enterprising Internet marketers who knew just how to leverage Welch’s fame to create a brand, and fast. Welch left her job in a spring factory, and launched her “Talk Tuah” podcast on popular YouTuber (and boxer) Jake Paul’s Betr media. She stayed busy and released a dating app called Pookie Tools. She had a very active merchandise store, clearing $65K in sales in the first few weeks. She even got to throw out the first pitch at a Mets game and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

But you can’t win ‘em all.

Welch launched a meme cryptocurrency called $HAWK to much fanfare. But quickly thereafter, it lost most of its value. Investors got wiped out. Hawk Tuah girl had made her first misstep in her charmed new life as an Internet celebrity. She had to take time to focus on legal troubles and took a step back from living in the public eye for a bit.

After the smoke from the incident had cleared, she set her sights on next steps. The podcast, which had been paused, returned. And with it, Welch had a new headline: “Influencer Becomes Poker Player.” Once again, pretty much no one saw her coming, but many had their curiosity piqued.

Viral to Poker Pro – a TikTok Star Plays Poker

Hawk Tuah Girl, Hailey Welch, poses next to a Celebrity Poker Tour poster featuring herself and other players.

In May 2025, Welch showed up in Vegas and took a seat at the ARIA to play in a Celebrity Poker Tour event. The event had a modest top prize of $10,000 and featured ten popular figures from a variety of niches, from the Twitch chess sensation Alexandra Botez to MLB Hall of Famer Jose Canseco.

Sharing the table with influencers, athletes, and entertainers, Welch confessed to feeling a bit behind the game. Far from confident, she reported, “I still don’t know what I’m doing.” But she was her usual outgoing self, talking, laughing, sipping wine, smoking her red vape while playing.

She managed to finish in the middle of the pack, which is respectable for someone at the beginning stages of their poker journey. But it’s hard to make the leap from social media to WSOP without years of practice, play, and study. What should we expect from Hawk Tuah girl at the poker tables? Well, as always, we can hear it straight from her.

What Welch Said—and What It Means

“I still don’t know what I’m doing.”

This pretty much says it all for right now. She’s just getting her feet wet with poker, and we should anticipate that it will be some time before she’s tearing up the felt. Still, if she takes it seriously, there is probably no shortage of pros who would be willing to take her under their wing. The clout is there for the taking. It bodes well that she dares to take risks and be herself – this can be quite the strength at the tables.

“I want to rebrand.”

We don’t know if this will be possible. When you’re world-famous for one thing, the world has a hard time forgetting. If she manages to make serious runs in tournaments, however, there’s no telling where the journey will take her. It really comes down to the fact that if you take the game seriously, the fans will take you seriously.

Hawk Tuah Girl Poker: What’s Next?

Hawk Tuah girl, Hailey Welch, laughs on a baseball field while wearing a Mets jersey and holding a baseball.

Welch is not the first celebrity to make waves in the poker world. So, what will come next? Here are some points to ponder:

  1. Will she continue entering poker events? More table time obviously signals genuine commitment.
  • Why not try streaming? This would be a natural fit for a content creator like Welch. She could stream the journey on Twitch or post poker plays to TikTok.
  • Will she play in the WSOP? The WSOP is running as we speak. If she can put up a respectable fight in any event, it would go a long way to demonstrating her growing poker skills.

And of course, there’s the question of how she repositions herself. If she really wants to rebrand, she may have to grow up a bit. But that’s entirely her call. The world seems to like her as she is. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Keep an Eye on Her

It’ll likely be an interesting journey as she moves from viral sensation to poker player. There’s really no telling what we’re going to get. First, the ball is entirely in her court to decide how committed she is to the cards. And second, we expect the unexpected from Hailey Welch.

What can you learn from her? Well, don’t play scared. She certainly isn’t.