Lee Davy takes a trawl through Twitter to figure out what is going on in the lives of the most interesting and absorbing people in poker.
The ending of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) reminds me of the end of a sweaty sex session. It was exciting, a lot of intense effort was applied and all that remains is this sense of awkwardness.
That’s how the poker news feed feels these days.
There is not much going on.
Hence this type of article.
For the next few days’ focus will return to the WSOP as they hold their fifth iteration of the WSOP National Championships. There is a WSOP bracelet up for grabs, in an event some could argue is one of the easiest rides the WSOP fairground has to offer. Dominik Nitsche will be looking to defend his crown and the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth are also getting involved.
Talking about Phil Hellmuth and the 14-time WSOP champion has been in the news a bit these past few days: partly intentionally, and partly not. We will start with his intentional imposition, and that came during a visit to Pinehurst golf course.
A camera crew managed to get hold of him for a quick two minute interview in which Hellmuth talked about hanging out with his good friend Tiger Woods.
“Tiger Woods and I play Blackjack together, hang out together and talk about the similarities with our games. He and I get our emotion out right away and then we take time to calm down. There is more skill involved when Tiger plays. I can play perfectly and be out in the first hour.”
Here is the clip from Pinehurst.
Sexism in Poker (Again!)
The unintentional way that Hellmuth got into the news this week happened after he took a photo with Samantha Abernathy and Jessica Dawley. The photo seemed to stir up a lot of bother on the boy’s side of the dance floor with several pros suggesting that some female poker players, Abernathy included, were only progressing within the industry due to their looks.
Follow the Samantha Abernathy Twitter stream to get in on the action right here.
One man who felt sufficiently pissed enough about the stream to write a blog post was Shane Schleger. It’s a great post called: We Don’t Love These Hoes (Misogyny in Poker) covering most of the tripe written on the thread, his own views on the topic and even a mention from the sexy Bryan Ferry.
Brunson Beaut, Boeree on Burning Man and Effel Goes Mental
I absolutely loved this tweet by Doyle Brunson.
It’s perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
For once I don’t have anything more to add.
I laugh at the young poker players who eat super healthy foods, then discuss what kind of drugs they are going to take partying.#sostupid
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) July 25, 2015
Burning Man is around the corner. That means the poker community will be turning up on the Playa with their professional chefs, masseuses, personal DJ’s and RV’s that can contain a football field, all the while explaining what a deep and meaningful experience it is going to be.
I’m not sure if Liv Boeree will be in the baller camp or slumming it with the rest of us, but she deserves a special hat tip for taking her parents. I am pretty sure if I took mine Burning Man would never again open up for business. The vibe they would imprint would be something altogether. I doubt there are many people standing next to the Burning Man hoping that the price of tuna will go down next year.
If you are as mental as Boeree, and want to take your parents to Burning Man, then check out this documentary first.
Talking about going mental I think the WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel may have finally flipped his lid. You may remember that Effel received a lot of flack after blocking Matt Glantz on Twitter after finally losing patience over his obsessive need to change the way WSOP’s should be run in the future.
Well Tristan Wade has bumped into him during the start of the WSOP National Championships and Effel said he will give his personal number to anyone who wanted to talk about the WSOP on a one to one basis.
What are you waiting for?
Get ringing.
