WSOP Tournament of Champions Begins from Poker in Twitter

Gavin Smith‘s first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet over the weekend nearly melted down the Twitterverse. After Smith made his breakthrough victory in the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em event on Saturday, congratulations flooded in for the popular Canadian. UB.com pro Joe Sebok was excited over Smith’s first WSOP bracelet win, Tweeting, “Congratulations @olegsmith. Love you friend. You worked hard for this and you deserve it. Happy to share this moment with you, bud.”

The accolades continued to come in for Smith throughout the day on Sunday. “Congrats on the bracelet @OleGSmith!,” Tweeted “Hollywood” Dave Stann. “Awesome to see one of the good guys come out on top – you rock, dude!” PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu had an ulterior motive with Smith’s win, but was thrilled nonetheless: “Congrats @olegsmith you brought it home! That win helped me beat Matusow for 10k woot.”

The revived WSOP Tournament of Champions was also a hot topic over the weekend. “Good luck to the wonderful Mike Sexton in the TOC today, a great ambassador for the game and a champion!,” PartyPoker pro Kara Scott tweeted as the 27-player tournament began. John Juanda, one of the players voted in by fans, Tweeted his starting table to his followers: “Seed, Ivey, Harman, Cada, Seidel, Ferguson, me, Chan, Barton. Wish me luck, guys! I’ll need it!”

Apparently the poker gods weren’t listening to Juanda because, not even one hour later, he reported his demise: “Just like that, I’m out of TOC. Tried to get Harman to lay down 2nd set and it didn’t work!” Others did much better and will move on to Day 2 of the TOC, including Erik Seidel (“Day over TOC. I finished w 72k.”), Howard Lederer (“Finished day 1 of WSOP TOC with 25,800. Slow day, no cards, deep stacks. Tomorrow the action should pick up.”) and Barry Greenstein (“End of today’s session. I didn’t play too well toward the end. 22 left. Average is 37k. I have 57k.”)

A considerable amount of attention was paid to the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event on Sunday night. Once the action in the event became heads-up, it featured two of the most respected players in the game, Dan Shak and Chris Bell. “Dan Shak and Chris Bell now heads-up for the bracelet,” Annie Duke chirped from tableside. “Freeroll on who wins. Both of them are deserving and great guys.”

Notable pros lined up to cheer on their horse. Noted tournament reporter B.J. Nemeth caught one particularly interesting exchange when he Tweeted, “Chris Bell to the TD: ‘This isn’t fair. Dan has Shannon Elizabeth rooting for him, and I’m stuck with Gavin Smith.’” After Bell was able to defeat Shak for the bracelet, Smith Tweeted his feelings: “Chris Bell, one of my closest friends just won his first bracelet, I think I am as happy now as I was last night!

For the best Tweets of the Week, we’ll start with Negreanu. While playing in the Mixed Game tournament at the WSOP, Negreanu posed the question, “Weird question was raised: what are the odds that at an 8 handed stud table, all 8 players are rolled up?” Leave it to the author of “The Mathematics of Poker” and double bracelet winner Bill Chen to know the answer, as Negreanu Tweeted, “Bill Chen just told me it’s 1 followed by about 20 zeros.”

Finally, the World Cup has drawn the attention of poker players. “Up early to sweat soccer,” Shannon Shorr Tweeted. “Need Germany to upset England as my only other team, Slovakia, is drawing dead against Holland tomorrow.” Scott Huff commented on the shoddy officiating when he chirped, “If I was from Mexico I’d be livid right now. As it is, I’m curious why FIFA even bothers having a rule book.” Perhaps it wasn’t the World Cup, but Full Tilt‘s Ali Nejad stepped up to play soccer rather than watch it: “Played rooftop soccer all day @nikemontalban. Or based on the way my body feels… rooftop soccer played me.”

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Poker terminology:

OPEN-HANDED - A category of games characterized by a part of each player's hand being exposed.
STUCK - Down a nontrivial amount of money, as in "he's stuck $800".
LOOSE - Playing more hands than the norm. Antonym: TIGHT.
FOLD - To decline to call a bet, thus dropping out of a hand.
BET FOR VALUE - Betting a hand that, in the long run, is expected to win more than it loses. Antonym: BLUFF.
BOARD - The exposed cards in Hold'em and stud. Also BOARD CARDS.

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