Whether it is the latest happenings in the poker world or the rest of the planet, poker players are never afraid to let their opinions be heard through the medium of Twitter. Poker News Daily constantly monitors the Tweets from the poker community and brings you the best of the best.
Over the weekend, one of the major news items was the vote in Washington, DC regarding health care in the United States. After nearly a year of wrangling in both houses of Congress, Sunday marked the day that the House of Representatives passed the Senate’s version of health care reform – plus a second bill to make changes to the original Senate plan – to send to President Barack Obama to enact into law. Just as soon as the bill was passed, the poker community responded to the decision of the Senate.
“Hollywood” Dave Stann was one of the first to chirp about the debate over health care because he was watching the proceedings on C-SPAN. “Paul Ryan-R speaks against bill: “arrogant notion that Washington knows best,” Stann tweeted. “Where was this argument when UIGEA passed?” After the vote passed on Sunday evening, Stann demonstrated that he was in favor of the proposal when he tweeted, “Happy Health Care Day!!! Congrats 2 the USA for taking the 1st crucial step toward recognizing health care 4 all as a right, not a luxury!” Joe Sebok joined the discussion, saying, “wow. healthcare passes. incredible. @barackobama. strong. we’ll have to wait and see how it pans out and who was right here.”
Annie Duke, on the other hand, was not quite as committed to the new health care plan. While admitting in a Tweet that she, “Wasn’t tweeting pro or con for HCR,” she also brought up aspects of the legislation that concerned her. “Isn’t a woman’s right to choose protected by The Constitution and Bill of Rights?,” Annie wrote on her Twitter, “Or is that only a woman’s right to choose if she is rich?” Another point seemed to annoy Duke when she commented, “How bout another vote to recommit since my tax $$ will pay for health care of people who eat McDonald’s everyday & smoke? Makes more sense.” Poker 2 Nite host Scott Huff seemed to have an accurate read on the state of the health care debate on Twitter when he said, “I wonder what the ratio of tweets to total pages read of the healthcare bill is: 5,000,000:1?”
An exchange of ideas over Twitter demonstrated how opinions differ on the health care debate. After finding out that he was in need of gallbladder surgery, tournament director Matt Savage followed by tweeting, “What happened in the US while I was sleeping? I was awaken the feeling of Obama’s hand in my pocket…. Strange.” When poker player Rob Perelman responded to Savage with, “Way to support our country’s change. Stay in France you communist?,” Savage fired back, “I do have a different view of National Health Care after spending 2 days in a French hospital.”
On the lighter side, poker players were just part of the millions of Americans who were taking part in the NCAA college basketball tournament. Poker After Dark host Ali Nejad was doing well in his bracket pool, tweeting, “Anyone else have 1 game on the TV and another one on the laptop? Sports overdosing over here! How do your brackets look? I went 12/16.” Sebok was also one of the more successful participants in a college basketball pool, bragging: “who called the murray state upset? that’s right. i did,” and “who the hell had st. mary’s winning this game?! oh, that’s right, i did. :) go bay area!” Michelle Lau had a simple Tweet about one of the more shocking upsets of the past weekend when she said, “OMG…KANSAS LOST!” Stann, however, wasn’t a part of NCAA March Madness when he tweeted, “F*ck March Madness! DODGERS EXHIBITION GAME vs Cubs on TV now!! We’re back, baby – Gooooo Bluuuuue!”
It seems that Phil Hellmuth will be hitting the road and, in his own style, he let people know across Twitter how he was traveling. “On my way 2 Costa Rica,” the UB.com spokesman Tweeted to start his journey, “do I really need an armed guard, and an armed driver with me every minute of the day? Ever seen someone golf w 2 body guards?” This drew a round of razzing from none other than Doyle Brunson, who tweeted, “I’ve been to Costa Rico a dozen times and never felt the need for a bodyguard. Change your medication,” and Daniel Negreanu, who joked, “in Austria with two armed guards, two drivers, and 4 bodyguards every 35 seconds of the day. So ya, a bit cooler than you.”
Doyle played the part of this weekend’s funniest Tweeter with a couple of gems from the notoriously funny Brunson repertoire. “I’m so freaking old they ask me to pay in advance when I go out to eat,” the septuagenarian Brunson tweeted on Thursday. “Texas Dolly” wasn’t through with the funny, though, coming back on Sunday with a priceless Tweet, “I haven’t forgotten how to chase women, I’ve just forgotten, why did I do it?”
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