Poker players on Twitter over the past few days have had plenty to talk about. While poker remains a constant, the National Basketball Association playoff series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics took center stage.
Taking a break from playing, Shannon Shorr Tweeted, “Enjoying the day off. About to watch Cavs/Celtics obv,” yesterday evening. It seemed that several people were following the game and were rooting for the Celtics to win the series. “I wanna see the Celtics in LA,” Tweeted Joe Reitman, while others pointed out how poorly the Cavaliers looked. “Amazing the Cavs don’t totally look like they’re throwing the game any more,” Jeff Madsen chirped; Haralabos Voulgaris chimed in by tweeting, “Not sure when Anderson Varejao became “Andy” but he has drawn 2 offensive fouls in 8 mins.”
After the Celtics vanquished the Cavs, many players were looking ahead to the Eastern Conference championship match up between the Celtics and Orlando Magic. “I’m scared for Orlando,” Tweeted UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy following Boston’s win. “The Celtics look ridiculously good. Time to shine Dwight!”
Others took time to Tweet about poker online and live poker. “Just arriving in lovely Nottingham for a poker tournament,” tweeted Vicky Coren from the United Kingdom/Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) event. While she didn’t survive to the money (“Out of the Nottingham tournament! Not a disaster, at least now I can watch the Brooker show and play the SCOOP heads up tomorrow”), Coren was able to add some joviality to the Twitterverse when she chirped, “The player next to me has a golf game tomorrow. I said ‘What about day 2 of this?’ and he roared with laughter. That’s my kind of opponent.”
Other players have been participating in online tournaments with varying degrees of success. DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija reported to his followers, “In the last week and a half I’ve gotten 25th in the 1k 6m (250k for first) 20th in ftops main (520k for first) and 12th in the 3k (210k). Something’s g2 give with best scoop events left and the wsop coming up. If I don’t hit a big one soon I’m going back to cash games for good!” The results for the past few days weren’t good for Makhija, as he Tweeted, “F**k tournaments. QQ into KK for the win at the UB ft I lose. 3rd for 22k. KK loses to AQs allin pre for CL in the 1kr. 18th for 10k. I’m officially on suicide watch.”
One player who has been having quite a bit of success in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) events has been Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh. “I won the $5 rebuy!,” Leigh Tweeted on Wednesday. “After the last win, TLB points updated and I’m in 3rd w/ 3,398 ..1st has 3,438…I have until Saturday …I hope I can do it!” Jon “PearlJammer” Turner was also doing well: “11th in Razz $200 SCOOP for $1500, 5th in $150 on FTP for $8k, and 3rd in 50r Turbo for $3k… plus a few more, only finished up $4k on day.”
On the live poker front, the California State Poker Championships has been a popular spot for players to warm up for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). “Weeeeee…donk central here @CalStatePoker studament!,” Tweeted “Hollywood” Dave Stann about one of the Stud events. “Nobody believes anyone + calling station = profit.”
Another player doing well was Rob Perelman, who showed some respect to Stann by saying, “I figured @Hollywood_Dave would be the best stud player at my table. I did not think I would be the second best.” Although Stann was eliminated prior to making the money (“Really? Another standard table-from-the-money bustout? I have bubbled & mincashed like 800 times this year”), Perelman was able to make Day Two: “2nd in chips coming into day 2 of the @CalStatePoker stud tournament. First real stud tourney I’ve ever played, too.”
Phil Hellmuth piped up on his Twitter account to state the ten things that he was most grateful for. In his first Tweet on the subject, Hellmuth noted, “10 things I’m grateful for: 1 Perfect health 2 Wife Kathy 3 Son Phillip 4 Son Nick 5 my families good health 6 My record 11 WSOP wins.” Phil then finished off the list by Tweeting, “10 Gratefuls cont: 7 All of my WSOP records 8 A life filled w love and support 9 All of the endorsement deals I have 10 An adventurous life!”
There was plenty of political commentary through poker players on Twitter. “All BP execs deserve a big bonus this year,” tweeted Ali Nejad about the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “I vote for all expense paid trips to the gulf resort of their choice. Swimming mandatory.” Michele Lewis also had the accident on her mind when she Tweeted, “Living phytoplankton is prettier than dead phytoplankton. Just can’t tell in Gulf of Yoo Hoo.” Rafe Furst shared an article he read with his followers: “Ted Turner makes point that dictatorial capitalism (i.e. China) is doing clean energy while our “democracy” lollygags.”
For the best Tweets of the week, Doyle Brunson once again stepped up to provide some comedy: “Doctor gave me a colonoscopy. After drinking MoviPrep, nothing could be worse. Wrong, if we were in Arkansas, doc and I would be married.” This prompted PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso to respond, “I finally got the Arkansas joke, lolol! Sometimes I’m slow w/jokes, but urs are always good!” Brunson also unveiled another blonde joke: “Blonde gets pulled over by cop. Cop asks to see her license. Blonde says “You guys just took it away yesterday. Now you want to see it?”
The ladies also brought the funny over the past few days on Twitter. “Life was easier when boys had cooties,” Lacey Jones opined. Kara Scott noted an embarrassing situation, “I’ve just realized that at 9pm that I’ve been wearing my shirt inside out. All day. Life fail.” Finally, Anjela Brunson, the daughter in law of Doyle, shared a real life situation she probably would have liked to avoid: “Got stopped by a cop today, just because I have a Doylesroom sticker on my car & cop knew @Pamela_Brunson, who poured a Red Bull drink on his head.”