Following your favorite poker pros on Twitter: the good, the bad, and the ugly
After watching their tweets for a while, you can’t help but feel like you know them. You learn about what is important to them. Some feel more like neighbors and people you’d like to hang out with, and, others…[pregnant pause] well, you find out that you want to distance yourself…a lot.
The Good
Some poker tweeters demonstrate that they know what is going on in the world by referencing others, events, sending good luck wishes, and encouraging others to contact their Congress people about the Internet Gambling laws or to donate to worthwhile causes.
There are the ‘reporter’ types that post news about upcoming and on-going poker battles. You don’t learn about them personally, but you learn about what is going on, and amongst them, who is well connected.
The Bad
As in any Twitter community, there are those who post inane comments like, “Gosh, I’m so tired”, and “Just finished my vanilla latte”. Who cares? Tweet intelligently or Get Off. Stop taking up space.
The Ugly
Then there are those who post just plain ugly comments and jokes. They berate others, put down genders and races, and post links to foul-mouthed, negative-based articles and videos. <–Their vision of the world, I guess.
I very recently started following about 65 poker-related pros on Twitter. Within 36 hours, I ‘un’followed 3. One I wasn’t familiar with, but several pros were following him/her, so I added the tweeter to my “following” list. [Learning experience – Remove]
Two of them – both late 20-something poker pros that reach final tables fairly frequently, one from North America and the other from Southeastern Europe – seem hell bent on creating negative perceptions of themselves. I was surprised to read the racist and gender-biased posts that they put out there for the world to see. One negative put down message after another.
And, both seem to have issues with females. One of these chumps thinks that a conversation with a female about politics is a waste of time. [How would that fly with your wife? mother? daughter?] And – the other chump? Well, instead of wishing his mother Happy Mothers Day, posted a comment about Mothers Day with a play on the word mother***k*r. This guy’s mom plays on the poker circuit! Way to make mom proud!
Don’t these dolts have publicists to teach them about image, marketing messages and packaging? I know one at least has a stylist. Maybe they are suffering from the spoiled athlete’s syndrom: a lot of money and a lot of people ready to bow to their every need, telling them how great they are – and they’re believing it.
Either way, I am grateful for free speech. I am grateful for Twitter. I am grateful for [Remove].
What types of people do you [remove] from your Twitter Following list?