Tweet, Tweet, Bad Beat: Polk Thinks Mercier Is Bad, Plus WSOP and Negreanu Stir Things Up
If you follow poker players on Twitter, it's mostly short abbreviated hand histories to inform the world (and investors) on bad beats and bust outs. Honestly, most of the time it's pretty boring. This week, though, things were very much the opposite of tame, with two Twitter fights, and a corporate account going a bit off the rails.
With the World Series of Poker coming up in a few short days, we might be in for more action and battles as some arguments are heating up. Let's just hope they remain verbal arguments.
If you're into it, your eyes might have been glued to your screen checking the latest updates on these matters. If you're just dropping in, it might be a bit hard to follow, with people responding to tweets made hours or days ago. Here's Tweet, Tweet, Bad Beat to help clear up what everything is about.
Doug Polk Versus Jason Mercier
Doug Polk started UpswingPoker.com not too long ago, and subscribers to his channel have seen him play and win huge pots and tournaments. Everyone that ponies up $25 a month can check out Polk and his partner in crime, Ryan Fees, play the biggest games in the world.
Apparently, Polk called PokerStars Team Pro Jason Mercier a "bad reg," or at least had him labelled as such in the software. Though a bit of context was missed, we imagine Polk was judging Mercier on his no-limit hold'em skills. Polk, one of if not the best no-limit hold'em heads-up cash-game player in the world, wasn't all that impressed, to say the least.
Mercier, the current No. 11 on live poker's all-time money list and the owner of three WSOP gold bracelets, got word of this and wasn't happy. So, he fired back:
Ppl keep telling me that @dougpolkpoker has me pegged as a bad reg. Stick to ur NLH "online only" cash games bud. I'll stick to every other form of poker. Oh and we can cross live NL tourneys when u like. You and your whole crew of live mtt donators. would love for u to join the games. Live or online. We are all waiting for you
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier)
His Italian friend Mustapha Kanit backed him up:
@DougPolkPoker hey mr i hate everybudy and My shit is gold do u want cross % for the main? Don't touch famiglia @JasonMercier #back2back
— Mustapha Kanit (@Mustacchione)
Polk responded a bit later:
@Mustacchione @JasonMercier hey come on, I didn't say I hate everyone or my shit is gold. Jason just isn't very good.
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker)
Well, you can imagine the storm that followed. Mercier replied, Daniel Negreanu responded, and even Doyle Brunson joined in:
@DougPolkPoker how starved r u for attention? R u hurt that we stopped talking on AIM back in 2008? You're the talentless 1 #ImNaturalBro
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier)
@JasonMercier @DougPolkPoker Doug, I don't know if they give out a "tool of the year" award yet but you are in contention! @alex_dreyfus
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker)
@DougPolkPoker Would you like to play Marcus some heads up hold em for high stakes? He is ready to play anyone. Would be great match.
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly)
@TexDolly @TSG_SiLent What is he doing the month of june. my schedule looks pretty open
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker)
Old School Versus New School
We stated poker Twitter was boring sometimes, but that was excluding Negreanu's feed. For reasons unknown, Negreanu has the ever urge to get into 140-character discussions. His "questions of the day" are legendary, especially when they're about United States politics. Even mentioning Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is enough to set his Twitter following off, with them all basically telling him to remain focused on poker and stay out of that business.
Last Sunday, it wasn't a question, but rather a statement that got things started. And this time it was about poker:
The idea that it's tougher to make money in poker today than in the "old days" couldn't be further from the truth. So much easier now.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker)
You just knew it was going to get rowdy after that one. Online poker players didn't agree with his statement, not failing to point out Negreanu's failed attempts at making money in high-stakes games. They were also quick to point out that with rake being so high at the lowest stakes these days, it's now even harder than ever to grow a bankroll.
It was again Polk that acted as the spokesman of online poker players world wide:
Good news guys!! @RealKidPoker That's why you are just crushing the games online.
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker)
@RealKidPoker You have 0 clue wrt online poker. So just stop saying it's clearly true, or go online and beat the games over a large sample.
— Herman (@hvdm1987)
@RealKidPoker this is absurd Daniel. Back in the 90s you could play 10ks where 90% of the field was horrible at poker
— Will Jaffe (@dankness3)
WSOP versus Shane Hahn
The official WSOP Twitter account will be in the hands of Kevin "Kevmath" Mathers this summer, but his time at the helm has yet to come. Mathers was already the WSOP oracle for the past few years, but this summer things will finally be official. Before the "Twitter Czar" was in control, the WSOP account, still in the hands of others, went off.
Back in 2012 the WSOP had a small feud with Jon Aguiar after retweeting someone that criticized Aguiar's alleged "whining." Now it was a gentleman named Shane Hahn that would get trolled by the organizing party of the biggest poker tournament in the world.
Hahn made some remarks on a tweet where the WSOP stated that a lot of WSOP qualifiers weren't licensed to use the WSOP brand, which was fair and correct, as unregulated online poker sites in America tend to "award" WSOP packages.
Things escalated from there:
@WSOP @recentpoker @PlayHPC @ACR_POKER LOL at WSOP being that mad, look it's not ACR's fault you foray into internet poker was massive fail
— shane hahn (@halfbked)
You know how many people get scammed showing up at our event expecting a seat and getting nothing? Every year, many. https://t.co/HsBeQJqyr5
— WSOP (@WSOP)
@WSOP NGC handed UB operators a license for Nevada, so please GTFO with regulated is much safer . . .Iovation has a legal license so please
— shane hahn (@halfbked)
Hahn wanted the last word, but wasn't going to get it from the WSOP account. Hahn describes himself as a poker pro in his Twitter profile — "I'm a professional poker player who likes to play league of legends a lot .... and chill" — but the WSOP account fired a shot:
@halfbked A poker pro? https://t.co/d84Jvo8VSe
— WSOP (@WSOP)
The poker community couldn't believe its eyes when they saw WSOP's tweet, and didn't fail to let the world know:
@WSOP insulting a player based off his lack of results is so fuckin terrible. How do you still have a job??
— Daniel Strelitz (@dDeoxyribo)
.@WSOP @DanOBrienPoker @halfbked I wonder how @nolandalla feels being associated with such immature and insecure co-workers.
— Randy Bo Bandy (@RandALLin)
That wraps up this week's Tweet, Tweet, Bad Beat, but stay tuned to PokerNews for more from the world of poker social media.
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