Doyle Brunson’s Twitter War!

7 years ago
Brunson’s Twitter War!
17:00
23 Sep

(Photo: Pinterest.com)

Now that is not a headline I ever thought I’d be writing, but the 83-year old legend of poker has taken to social media like a duck to water – and all the flaming, trolling and inevitably blocking that goes with it!

The reason for all this bad feeling? The US presidential battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton of course, which has set friend against friend or – in this case –foe against foe, Vanessa Selbst the target of Brunson’s ire.



“I'll bet a lot of money I can name (and prove) twice that many lies Hillary has said. Maybe 10 times?” tweeted Brunson at fellow legend Erik Seidel, but the modern social media world doesn’t limit conversations to just two people anymore!

The political activist and top-ranked female poker player of all time was soon in on the discussion, posting...

" @TexDolly You're just like the rest of the ignorant masses. Recycling talking points, making assertions, avoiding actual facts and logic.”

Brunson’s response set the tone for what was about to erupt, replying:

"VanessaSelbst Don't know if you follow me but if you do, please unfollow me. You showed me your character when u welshed on Jason.#triedto.”

Ouch! Texas Dolly was, of course, referring to the massive row which erupted around this year’s WSOPprop bet, which saw Selbst offering $1.8million of her money against Mercier’s $10k if he managed to take down three bracelets.

“If every1 can stop telling me my stupid bet I made extremely drunk then tried 2 buy out of once sober was extremely stupid, would appreciate,” she tweeted one point, but the story had grown arms and legs and was never likely to end with Mercier just failing to win the bet.



Responding to Brunson’s offer to ‘unfollow him’, the talented but argumentative Selbst hit back...

"TexDolly I haven't followed you for a long time. And yeah, paying 100k = welching. I doubt u want to start a debate about ethics in poker.”

And then it all kicked off!

Brunson’s legendary status has been based on his poker prowess and longevity, but much of this was in a time where ‘ethics’ had a different meaning. It drew a nasty tweet from a random Twitter user:

Brunson didn’t take too kindly to this and retorted with the unseemly:

The debate turning nasty certainly didn’t stop it from running, with fellow pro Liv Boeree getting herself involved, tweeting to Brunson and Seide


Brunson, by now mired in the modern-day social media phenomenon which has pretty-much replaced back-room gossip as the place to air problems, seemed taken aback by Boeree’s tweet.

“I didn't shit on what's her name. What are you talking about? She brought up ethics. Said I wouldn't like it...Geeeeeez,” before adding:



If you think this is a one-off you’d be sadly mistaken, the political divide causing no end of arguments among the poker elite, most of it played out on Twitter.

Just last month I reported on Daniel Negreanu’s personal attack on Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow where Matusow’s off-the-cuff joke about Seidel ‘being on drugs’ regarding Seidel attacking Trump was met by a nasty retort from Negreanu…

" @themouthmatusow @Erik_Seidel says the guy who has a fried brain from years of drug use and still on buckets of pills.”

…which then launched a tirade of abuse against the Canadian himself.

"wow I was a kid poker fan until the moment I read this nauseatingly hateful comment. Wtf bro?”


The reason for all this ill-feeling and bad blood? Well, as with Brunson and Selbst it’s the Trump/Clinton battle.


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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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