Who’s Number One Among Poker Pros On Twitter? It’s Not Who You Think
Professional poker players have embraced Twitter as much as anyone else--hundreds of poker pros Tweet daily about the highs and lows of their professional and personal lives.
Many love to boast about the big hands they've won at the poker table, while other lament their bad beats.
Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson likes to Tweet jokes, such as ones about Joan Rivers' face.
Phil "Poker Brat" Hellmuth Jr. uses Twitter to drop the names of famous people he knows (a Tweet today informs us he'll be golfing with Wayne Gretzky tomorrow).
And clowns like Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu see Twitter as just another way to spew bigoted remarks.
But who, out of all the poker pros who Tweet, has the most followers on Twitter?
It's not who you might think.
Gambling911.com examined the Twitter accounts of all the top poker pros who Tweet and discovered that Joe Sebok, of all people, has the most Twitter followers, with 1,025,315.
Sebok, whose Twitter address is twitter.com/joesebok, is the only professional poker player with over a million followers on Twitter.
One might have expected Brunson, who uses twitter.com/texdolly, to have the most Twitter followers, as by most accounts he is the most popular professional poker player in the world.
He is, however, in second place, with a nevertheless-still-impressive 383,005 Twitter followers.
In third place is Negreanu, at twitter.com/realkidpoker, with 154,533 followers.
Fourth is Hellmuth, at twitter.com/phil_hellmuth, with 113,129.
Coming in fifth is Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, at twitter.com/magicantonio, with 94,139.
Sixth is Phil "Poison" Ivey, at twitter.com/philivey, with 93,338.
In seventh place is Tom "Durrrr" Dwan, at twitter.com/tom_dwan, with 69,259.
In eighth spot is Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, at twitter.com/themouthmatusow, with 52,843.
Ninth is Phil "Unabomber" Laak, at twitter.com/realphillaak, with 45,818.
In 10th place--and the only woman in the Top 10--is Beth Shak, at twitter.com/bethshak, with 45,367 followers on Twitter.
The second most Twitter followers among female poker pros, after Shak, is Vanessa Rousso, at twitter.com/vanessarousso, with 41,190.
Third among women is Annie Duke, at twitter.com/realannieduke, with 37,408.
Duke is slightly more popular in the Twitterverse than her poker pro brother, Howard "The Professor" Lederer, who at twitter.com/howardhlederer has 35,882 followers.
Todd Brunson, son of Doyle and also a pretty fair poker pro, is only a fraction as popular as his famous father--at twitter.com/toddbrunson, he has just 21,401 followers.
That's better than sister Pam, though, who's also a pro, and who at twitter.com/pamela_brunson has 5,106 followers.
Other top Tweeters are Sebok's step-father, Barry Greenstein, at twitter.com/barrygreenstein with 44,980 followers, Jason Mercier at twitter.com/jasonmercier with 37,832, Erik Seidel at twitter.com/erik_seidel with 37,405, Jen Harman at twitter.com/realjenharman with 36,213, Annette Obrestad at twitter.com/annette_15 with 25,161, David Williams at twitter.com/dwpoker with 24,743, Scotty Nguyen at twitter.com/thescottynguyen with 23,948 and Andy Bloch at twitter.com/andy_bloch with 20,922.
Other top names are Maria Ho at twitter.com/mariaho with 19,698 followers, Tiffany Michelle at twitter.com/tiffnymichelle with 15,810, Vanessa Selbst at twitter.com/vanessaselbst with 14,606, Evelyn Ng at twitter.com/evybabee with 13,290, Chris Moneymaker at twitter.com/cmoneymaker with 11,668, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer at twitter.com/fossilman with 9,304, Liz Lieu at twitter.com/lizlieu with 8,870, Dennis "Fordman" Phillips at twitter.com/fordman with 7,764, Mike Caro at twitter.com/mikecaro with 6,157, Paul Wasicka at twitter.com/kwickfish with 5,915 and Jason Somerville at twitter.com/jasonsomerville with 3,404.
Shannon Elizabeth, who at twitter.com/shannonelizab has 273,958 followers, is a poker pro but also a well-known actress, so her stats can't be counted since many of her followers likely know her from movies, not poker.
Lou Diamond Phillips, at twitter.com/loudiamondphillips with 32,178 followers, is also an actor and poker pro.
So how in the name of all things poker did Joe Sebok end up with the most Twitter followers among poker pros?
The likely reason is because Sebok hosts a popular webcast about poker on something called Poker Road Radio.
Plugging his Twitter feed on that show, he's managed to convince more than a few to follow his Tweets.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
