Poker Player Tweets of the Week: NFL season means bankrolls will be lost
No, Josh Arieh, I won't thank you later. The Ravens got smoked. In all fairness, I, too, used the exact same ridiculous logic on this week's Casino City Gang podcast. Arieh and I both figured that the oddsmakers were overly harsh on the defending Super Bowl champs, even though Baltimore had lost several key players, including future Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. Such fools we are. If there is one thing I have learned over the years about betting on the NFL, it's this: Don't bet against Peyton Manning in the regular season. Of course, little did we know that Manning would have one of the greatest games a quarterback has ever had, tossing for a whopping 462 yards and seven touchdowns. But with Manning, that's not even that surprising. Wednesday, Sept. 4: Brandon "@badams78" AdamsHow can you go wrong taking the WORLD CHAMPS +7.5 in their first title defense game??? #thankmelater
— Joshua Arieh (@golferjosh) September 5, 2013
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed this. Economist/high-stakes poker pro Brandon Adams tweeted a video (see below) from last week's ESPN coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event. The hand he's referencing is a pretty standard bat beat -- one guy gets it all-in on the turn with top-two pair and the other guy calls and hits a three-outer. It's a brutal hand, but standard nonetheless. What makes this hand so great is that Carter Gill, the loser of the pot, has one of the greatest bad beat reactions in the history of televised poker. You can literally see the emotional rollercoaster in his head play out on his face in real time. The Youtube video is titled "Saddest poker hand ever?," and there's no better way to describe this hand. Pure gold. Tuesday, Sept. 3: Joe "@Stapes" StapletonI'm confident that WSOP Main Event TV coverage has long-term staying power. Where else do you see hands like this! http://t.co/01fOrhXpfE
— Brandon Adams (@badams78) September 4, 2013
If you're not yet following comedian, poker broadcaster and player Joe Stapleton on Twitter, quit reading this article and go follow him. And then come right back, of course. "Stapes" is one of the funniest guys on the circuit and was a perfect candidate to be interviewed by PokerNews' Kristy Arnett for the "Pros Share Their Most Embarassing Drunk Stories" segment. The video also features interviews with Marvin Rettenmaier and Eugene Katchalov. I won't go into the details of the trio's stories, so give the video a watch. Monday, Sept. 2: Brett "@BrettRichey" RicheyCheck out @KristyArnett getting me to tell one of my drunkest stories on camera. She’s hot. http://t.co/ccYNtuHWBN
— Joe Stapleton (@Stapes) September 3, 2013
I'm right there with you, Brett Richey. To me, Pitbull is famous because he's on the radio. If he weren't on the radio, no sane person would ever come across Pitbull "performing" at some random dive and think, "Wow, this guy is the world's next pop sensation!" Somehow, there was at least one guy who "discovered" Pitbull and made him famous. I don't get it. As Richey points out, nobody is a Pitbull "fan." And yet, the guy has set records for selling albums and having Youtube views. What is the allure? I think this is one big government conspiracy. Pitbull is a robot sent to Earth to distract us from the NSA spying on our e-mails and phone calls ... or something. Monday, Sept. 2: Jonathan "@JonAguiar" AguiarI still have yet to meet one Pitbull fan and yet he's everywhere - can someone please explain?
— Brett Richey (@BrettRichey) September 3, 2013
This tweet made my day. Jonathan Aguiar is a former full-time poker pro and current DraftKings honcho. DraftKings is a daily fantasy sports site based in Boston. I live in Brighton, a Boston suburb (though technically still part of the city proper), and I graduated from Emerson College, located downtown. Sadly, the kids playing Quidditch are most likely from Emerson, one of the first schools in the country to adopt the "sport," which originated in the Harry Potter series and is meant to be played by wizards flying on broomsticks. Obviously, this is impossible in the real world, though nobody who plays seems to grasp that simple concept. When Quidditch first came to Emerson, it was completely embarrassing for the entire campus. Actually, it still is embarrassing. I'd like to officially apologize to Aguiar, the city of Boston and the rest of the world for the fact that my tuition money likely went towards funding Emerson's Quidditch program. What a disgrace.You know the college students are back in Boston when you see 80 kids and a quiddich field set up on the esplanade
— Jonathan Aguiar (@JonAguiar) September 2, 2013