Gossip Column: James Woods Gets in a Fight With Twitter, Arlie Shaban Gets His 2nd Challenge & Tom Dwan Loses $2.3 Million Pot

There can never be dull moments when it comes to poker. And as most celebrity players would agree to, it’s the quirks, the showdowns, the prop bets or the challenges that has the paparazzi chase them, as much as what happens on the felts. And if we are getting our updates right, there’s been a lot happening on the virtual felts with just the right elements of entertainment that warrant a good, gossipy ready!

Actor and poker player James Woods has recently kicked up a storm on social media, and picked a fight with Twitter over his refusal to remove a July tweet that featured certain ‘political propaganda’. According to the site, the tweet went against its standards and user terms but Woods doesn’t agree.

And while the two are currently in a stubborn face-off, celebrity Twitch streamer Arlie Shaban seems to be sweating it out hard. Right after Shaban managed to complete the first challenge given to him by the anonymous ‘Poker Gods’ on the PokerStars blog, Shaban has been served with another challenge and this time all he has to do is to “Slay the multi-table beast”!

Meanwhile, high stakes pro Tom Dwan was reportedly back in the thick of high-stakes cash game action, and was losing big time. Good sense finally prevailed and Dwan quit, but not before he suffered a loss of $2.3 Million in a single pot!

James Woods vs Twitter

Poker player and Hollywood actor, James Woods has been on a virtual warpath with the social media giant, Twitter. And Woods looks in no mood to back off.

On Thursday, Woods who has a strong Twitter fan base of 1.7 Million followers received an email from Twitter asking him to delete a post he had made on July. According to Twitter, the post carried tinges of political propaganda and it violated the site’s standards. Woods was informed that he had no longer had access to his Twitter account unless he deleted the post.

The mentioned post is the one that opened an ongoing discussion on how the big social media brands were seemingly monopolizing the virtual space and allegedly mistreating conservative thinkers. The discussion has US President Donald Trump in the centre of the controversy.

We’d think Woods would immediately do the needful but no! The seasoned actor has dug in his heels and refused to comply. Woods who is known for his conservative views claimed that his right to free speech was being violated by Twitter.

“The irony is, Twitter accused me of affecting the political process, when in fact, their banning of me is the truly egregious interference,” he said.

“Because now, having your voice smothered is much more disturbing than having your vocal chords slit. If you want to kill my free speech, man up and slit my throat with a knife, don’t smother me with a pillow.” He emphasized.

Looks like the war will continue, since neither Twitter, that has currently declined comment on Woods’ statements nor the popular actor himself is ready to give up arms.

Arlie Shaban’s New Challenge is to Slay the Multi-Table Beast

Twitch steamer and poker player Arlie Shaban’s virtual routine is nowadays busy with figuring out what the challenges given to him by an anonymous group, called the ‘Poker Gods’ entail. Just a few days back we heard that Shaban had managed to complete the first challenge posted before him and now he`s been summoned for another!

And while Shaban had to ‘Skin the Dutch Lion’, this time he has the formidable task to ‘Slay the multi-table beast.’ If only it wasn’t so cryptic!

But to Shaban’s credit he’s been able to decipher the messages so far, and has put himself on the right track. He correctly interpreted his first challenge as one where he had to defeat Dutch player Lex Veldhuis in a tournament. The duo clashed over a $530 buy-in tournament and even joked about the challenges. Shaban eventually did manage to beat Veldhuis.

In their blog post at PokerStars, the so-called ‘Poker Gods’ have doled out the next challenge for Shaban, dropping a hint that the original 12 labors of Hercules will prove a good guide for him.

“You’ll remember in that story Hercules had to slay a multi-headed beast, The Lernean Hydra. Each time he cut off one of its heads, two more would grow in its place. It got ugly, Arlie. Seriously. How do you even start to defeat something like that? Well, Hercules finally did defeat the Hydra. And you must do the same, using everything you can learn from Hercules to complete the challenge,” the blog post read. “So, ask yourself Arlie, what could this mean for you? Who is the multi-table beast? A beast seemingly able to play countless tables at once? Answer that question first Arlie, and then go find him!”

If sending the challenge over wasn’t enough, the Poker Gods also noted that Shaban was gaining huge popularity owing to the quest they put him on, which is why they warned, the Gods themselves will be watching from Olympus.

Whatever that means, the post disclosed a big name that was part of the anonymous group, Bennus ‘Stratego’ Spraggos, who, the post stated, would be observing Shaban’s efforts and would give guidance and encouragement in case Shaban needed any.

“More likely he’ll be there to troll you, and maximize any humiliation. He’ll be the one showing us the whole battle.”

Well, the ball it seems is now totally in Shaban’s court, as he grapples to set on to recognize who the multi-table beast is and how and where he should endeavor to defeat him.

Tom Dwan Loses $2.3 Million Pot in High Stakes Cash Game

High stakes cash games are certainly nerve wracking stages of poker action, with big money and equally huge wins or disappointments. For those who are aware of Dwan’s high stakes poker winnings there’s another bit of interesting news coming by. Dwan reportedly entered a high stakes cash game and lost a whopping $2.3 Million! Good sense prevailed finally and the pro finally decided to quit the game.

The action being spoken of happened during the $1 Million Triton Poker Super High Roller cash game in Jeju where high stakes regulars like Patrik Antonius, Jason Koon, Sam Greenwood, Paul Phua and Dominik Nitsche were also in the mix. A massive pot was then witnessed when in midst of the action, Phua 3-bet raised sending the pot to $431,000 and Dwan moved all in with ace-queen off-suit. Phua was smiling all the way as unknown to Dwan, he had walked right into Phua’s bullets. A visibly stunned Dwan went into the tank to analyze whether he had just made the right move or not. Dwan looked keenly at Phua, for some kind of tell, but Phua’s jovial demeanor didn’t give any leads.

“The fact that Paul’s laughing doesn’t tell you anything,” said commentator Lex Veldhuis, talking about the pot. “He’s always laughing!”

Well, the fatal shove cost Dwan close to $1.15 Million and overall in the pot, Dwan lost $2,353,000 before he realized it wasn’t going so good and quit right after Phua scooped the pot.

This is it from the juicy sidelines of gaming and poker; stay tuned for more entertainment and gossipy updates coming your way soon!

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