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  Twitter and Poker
 For the past few years, coverage of the WSOP was provided by a umber of media siteds a number of media withes whose reporters blogged live updates from the tournament floor. But this year, if you wanted the most up-to-date information, virtually in real time, you checked out Twitter. From WSOP President Jeffrey Pollack to fans of Phil Ivey, it seemed every one was tweeting about the WSOP.
In a world where information is consumed faster and faster, those blogging from the Rio simply could not compete with those Twittering live. Before you could read about the final hand of Day 8 of the main event from the blogs, tweets were already flying with the details. A succinct "OMG", from ESPN Poker was the first sign something was afoot. Their tweets continued in virtually real time, "we have an all in 8-8 for Darvin Moon vs A-A for Jordan Smith on an eight-high flop.... board is 8-2-4-5 ....10 on the river. We have our November Nine. Jordan Smith eliminated in tenth". Twitter opened up a new way to experienced poker and report on tournament play. Anyone with an account and fast fingers can become a reporter who breaks news in 140 character or fewer, including players. According to the WSOP rules, players could use their cell phones or PDAs until the money bubble burst. Untils then for hours - and for days in some cases- you could follow most of the players whether or not they were at a covered or featured table. But reporting was many times secondary to venting. A tweeted bad beat was recurring theme on Twitter., Wether it was cathartic or simply a form of being on tilt, bas bead stories abounded. Twitter followers everywhere heard tragic stories and suck outs. During the last event leadin to the main event, Phil Hellmuth's 20,000 followers were treated to the following tweet: "I put 231,000 in w A-a vs. their K-Q before the flop and lost the pot." Do hands like that bother Phil or can his shake off? Check the Twitter. Three hours later he tweeted "Keep thinking about 460,000 pot! my A-A all in pre vs K-Q off suit ! Sick beat! K-Q-5-4-J! One flip in 15 hours, and lose..." Question remains, of course, as to whether tweeting from the table might give you opponent an unintended advantage. If the other players are following your tweets, do they now have information that they otherwise would not be privity to about your play or your emotions? Are your tweets the equivalent of a hole cam ? Or can you use Twitter as a way to spread disinformation, pretending to be on tilt or falsely reporting hands in order to throw your opponents off? The possibilities are endless. However it is used, Twitter is here to stay. There are those who might decry this new trend in poker. What would Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson or Jack "Treetop" Straus say about this ? Well, sadly we cannot ask them, but we can find out what one their contemporaries, Doyle Brunson would say by going ove to TexDolly at Twitter.com. On June 27th at 2:37: "I'm still in the HORSE with more than average chips. Todd has more than me and we are looking good right now" On June 20th at 10:14: "Fourteen left in 10K 8 or better. I'm in the third place with 550,000. I can taste bracelet umber 11."Well maybe not this year, you can be sure he will tell us all about it - in no more that 140 characters. Shari G.
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