Poker Players Take to Twitter After Las Vegas Massacre

(Photo: People.com)

The horrific shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday evening which has left at least 59 dead and many hundreds more injured has, as you would expect, seen an outpouring of grief, anger and confusion among the poker community, Vegas being either a literal or spiritual home to the game and its players.

Reactions have been varied, many tweeting in fear of loved ones while others have used Twitter to spread the call for help. Others yet have already started the expected political ‘discourse’ which has often divided the poker community, while many have called for arguments over the likes of gun control to at least be put on hold as a mark of respect to those who died in the attack.

Doug Polk cancelled his upcoming podcast a s mark of respect for those who lost their lives in the shooting, tweeting…

...although a rather shocked and confused Joe Ingram decided to go ahead with his streaming plans, despite having been in the area of the attack just prior to the horrendous events…

There will always be those who speak before thinking and Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow is notorious for this ‘approach’ to social media (and of course at the poker table itself)…

Doyle Brunson is well-known for his views on guns, often mentioning the need for them, the granddaddy of poker having been a victim of gun-wielding robbers on no less than 5 separate occasions in his long career. On Twitter he was at odds with Poker Night in America host Matt Glantz…

Prayers and thoughts for those caught up in the attack were plentiful, Phil Hellmuth leading the way with his tweet…

…and somehow not (yet at least) getting caught up in any of the political arguments which other seemed hell-bent on.

Another of those limiting themselves to simple statements of support was Jason Mercier…

…while Liv Boeree echoed the sentiments…

…and re-tweeted many of the more positive messages on social media which called for practical help to be offered to victims of the attack…

One of the more surprising Twitter feeds was that of James Woods, the actor and poker-player not noted for his sensitivity or ability to avoid a right wing/left wing argument on Twitter. Yesterday, however, he limited himself to just a couple of tweets, the second of which followed Boeree in calling for assistance from those able to provide it…

Danielle ‘dmoongirl’ Andersen took a different approach to the situation, keen to avoid the killer becoming some kind of cause celebre…

…whereas Daniel Negreanu, as outspoken as the likes of Matusow and Woods when it comes to politics, couldn’t help himself as he weighed in on the gun control debate which has started to rage once again in the media…

One person who is always a target for being a ‘loudmouth’ in the political arena as far as poker players go was Cate Hall, apparently the target of some less-than-savoury flak on Twitter…

As with any large-scale attack in the US, the conspiracy theorists are almost always among the first to offer alternative scenarios to the authorities’ version of events, and Matusow again was among those to dive into the fray….

…although he wasn’t allowed free reign among the poker community, Robert Mizrachi attempting to bring him back in line….