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It was only a matter of time.
Self-important poker players who think the world is interested in their every thought have been blogging for a while now.
The blog-short for web log, a type of online diary-has become a staple for poker pros such as Phil "Poker Brat" Hellmuth Jr., Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu, Annie Duke and many others.
But blogging is so old hat, and this is, after all, the year 2009.
The year of Twitter.
Twittering is similar to blogging, except instead of a pompous jackass disseminating a collection of his or her thoughts every few days, via a blog, the p.j. disseminates a short simple thought every few minutes (or even few seconds). Twitter messages, called Tweets, can be received via Blackberries and other hand-held electronic devices, or they can read on the Internet.
"Poker Brat" Hellmuth, not the first egomaniac to also have been described as the "Mouth that Roared" and "A Legend in His Own Mind," is the first big-name poker pro to regularly offer his profound thoughts to the world at large via Twitter.
Want to see his words of wisdom?
Check them out at http://twitter.com/phil_hellmuth
But don't expect anything deeper than a wading pool.
A recent check of Hellmuth's Tweets reveals stimulating declarations from him such as, "I am a writing machine! I wrote an intro for a book, 1,700 words in the last 30 hours, and 4,000 words for my autobiography today!" and "Playing Chinese poker with Mike the Mouth right now, online for $300 a point...I lost $18,900 to Mikey."
Other Twittering gems from Hellmuth include: "Last night lost a bet for shots to a female Olympian-rock, paper, scissors" and "Just drank Cristal at my house with Gavin Smith, Layne Flack, Jeff Madsen and Joe Sebok."
Did someone say name-dropper?
Phil fits that bill.
Among his other Tweets are, "Went to concert with Jim Harbaugh," "Blake Shelton and band invited me to hang out at their concert," "Sitting on floor of Warriors-Suns game right now" and "Todd Brunson at my table."
What next?
Phil going to the bathroom and telling a breathlessly waiting world whether it was a "1″ or a "2″ he made?
Thomas Somach, www.pokerhelper.com
