Major League Baseball’s World Series kicked off last night, with many in the poker community keeping up to date through their Twitter accounts. By the informal survey of poker’s best through the Twitterverse, it seems the San Francisco Giants are the choice over the Texas Rangers.
“Tailgating before game 1 of the World Series,” Tweeted Andy Bloch after flying in for the opening game. “I’m wearing the same SF jersey I wore when I beat Orel Hershiser.” Another player on hand for the game, Bryan Devonshire, included a Twitpic of his seat and chirped, “Row 23 above 3rd base. Hell, yeah!”
Other poker players took in the game from their homes. UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth Tweeted to his followers, “Gonna watch the World Series on FOX now, go Giants! I am planning on buying tix for Game Two tomorrow and bringing my son Nick to the game.” Eric Mizrachi also chose to watch the game at home, but his attention was torn between two events. “Watching the Heat game & the World Series (baseball). I know the heat r gonna win but what about the baseball game?” DoylesRoom front man Doyle Brunson even sounded off on the game, Tweeting, “1st baseball bet of the year for me. I took Rangers. SF had a 6 run inning off Lee, who had a .067 ERA in post season. 1st 6 run inning in 40 (years for the Giants in the World Series).” Off that outburst, the Giants defeated the Rangers 11-7 to take a 1-0 lead in the Fall Classic.
With the midterm elections in the United States less than a week away, poker players also were discussing the candidates. With his tongue perhaps planted in his cheek, 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Erik Seidel Tweeted, “I’m voting for Harry Reid for many reasons, but mostly because he makes me feel charismatic.” Brunson also had some thoughts on the Nevada senatorial candidates, Tweeting, “Harry Reid hasn’t openly said he favors online poker being legalized. I don’t like 15% unemployment in Nevada. But I don’t like Angle either.”
A debate emerged between World Poker Tour (WPT) poker reporter B.J. Nemeth and Carter “ckingusc” King regarding Nemeth’s longstanding rule of not turning his iPhone off during flights around the country. “I continue to tweet my iPod-on-a-plane stats because, as proven today, a lot of people still believe what I’m doing is dangerous. IT’S NOT,” Nemeth Tweeted to his followers (his record is up to 0-for-328 as far as airline mishaps). King, however, took exception to Nemeth’s act of defiance by Tweeting, “But what happens that one time?”
Nemeth clarified his practice: “To clarify, my iPhone is in ‘airplane mode.’ That turns off the transceivers, effectively turning it into an iPod.” He also responded to King by saying, “With thousands of flights every day for years, there has never been a ‘one time.’ If cell phones posed any risk to a plane, flight attendants would either confiscate them or individually verify that they were all off.”
When players actually were away from Twitter and on the felt, they were performing well. Of particular interest is Daniel Negreanu’s work at the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) stop in Vienna, where he Tweeted, “HUGE double up. Raise call guy reraised button reraised. I reraise in SB 3 bettor goes all in with KK which were obv no good. Over 400k!”
Bernard Lee also was Tweeting success from the $10,000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit stop in Hammond, IN: “Made FINAL TABLE – entering 5th in chips Very pleased to get seat in wsop freeroll! Let’s have fun tomorrow – all gravy from here on out!” Finally, Vanessa Rousso (“Playing the WSOP Circuit main event in South Africa today. $5K buy-in… and feeling GOOD!”) and Maria Ho (“Greetings from @VanessaRousso and I’s riverboat cruise in South Africa!”) were in South Africa for the WSOP Circuit stop.
For the top Tweets of the past few days, we’ll start with Howard Lederer’s suggestion to the coffee empire that is Starbucks. “Dear Starbucks,” Lederer Tweeted. “Next time I get a drink, could you not write on the side of the cup, so my fingers won’t be completely black when I’m done?” Brunson opined about creativity in Tweeting, “When you give birth to anything, including ideas, pain is involved somewhere.” Finally, “Poker After Dark’s” Ali Nejad had a cryptic Tweet about the future: “Great dinner w/ @ShannonElizab – despite shrieky J-pop kids at next table. Stay tuned world… we’ve got a little something up our sleeves.”
