(@CWayneroot) and Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports), and the official accounts of the NFL (@NFL), NBA (@NBA) and the MLB (@MLB). The big networks are all on there too, from CBS (@CBSSports) and NBC (@NBCSports) to USA Today (@USATODAYSports) and Deadspin (@Deadspin). Soccer your thing? Gary Lineker was a top “striker” for a number of the world’s best soccer teams between 1978 and 1994, and among many other achievements, was the top scorer at the 1986 World Cup. Today he’s retired from the game but has a new career as a sportscaster: He’s been the host of the BBC show “Match of the Day” since the 1990s, and also tweets prolifically at @GaryLineker. If hockey is more your thing, you’ ll want to follow Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) and hockey historian @NHLhistorygirl. For basketball lovers, there are almost too many interesting accounts to choose from. So here are a couple, selected because of their diversity—if you don’t care for any given one, just move onto the next: ESPN’s Amin Elhassan (@AminESPN), the off icial @NBAFantasy account, Chicago Bulls columnist Sean Highkin (@highkin), VICE Sports contributor David Roth (@david_j_roth), CBS Sports writer Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie), Washington Post NBA reporter Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee), Grantland’s Brian Phillips (@runofplay), and for a view from the hardwood itself, there’s Houston Rocket James Harden himself (@JHarden13). Of course, we don’t want to neglect the WNBA, so make sure you follow James Bowman (@Jbowman_ATL), the Los Angeles Sparks’ Candace Parker (@Candace_Parker), the long-running Women’s Basketball Daily (@WBBDaily), and the official account of the WNBA itself (@WNBA). Horse racing will bridge the gap between these two sections, as it is equal parts sports and gaming opportunity. Since we’re based in Louisville, KY – the home of the greatest thoroughbred racing in the world – we suggest you follow the official home of the Kentucky Derby, @ChurchillDowns. Other great options include long-time horse racing expert John Asher (@johnasher), tip site Horse Racing Nation (@HR_Nation), a British
perspective from Horse Racing News (@HorseRacingUK), and horse racing expert and Southern Gaming contributor Bruno DeJulio (@RacingwithBruno). GAMING
The world of professional gambling has some of the biggest personalities you will ever encounter, and it stands to reason that those personalities translate well to Twitter. There’s no better example of this than the world of poker, and there’s no better example of the poker attitude than our own contributor Phil Hellmuth. He tweets prolifically (@phil_hellmuth) about not just his poker career, but the other things he’s really into – his family, reading and sports betting, among other things. Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) also gives you a behind-the-scenes look into the life of a professional poker player, but it’s more of a kinder and gentler approach – he’s just as likely to recommend a new self-help course or an exercise regimen that he’s excited about as he is to talk about poker hands. Chris Moneymaker arguably did more to change the game of poker than any other, when he became the first “homegamer” (someone who won his entry fee in an online satellite tournament) to take home a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2003. That was the win that launched a thousand amateur poker players, stars and chips in their eyes. Moneymaker is still playing, and still t weeting (@CMONEYMAKER). And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention one of our favorites: @SouthernGaming, a one-stop Twitter shop for news, tips and highlights for gamers and gaming enthusiasts of all kinds.
Twitter Lingo Like any good subculture, Twitter has evolved into having its own set of secret handshakes and cryptic phrases. It can be intimidating at first, but there are really only a few things you need to know. First, what’s a “hashtag”? That’s what happens when you put the pound sign (#) in front of any series of characters. It basically turns those characters into a clickable search term, so it’s a very easy way to explore topics of interest, as well as a way to play “hashtag games” (tune into the Comedy Central show “@Midnight” some evening for a beautiful example of how hashtag games are played). Then, there is the “at-message,” which is simply using a person’s Twitter handle, complete with the @ symbol, inside a tweet. When you do that, the person who owns that handle will be notified that you have written something about them. This is “tagging” someone, and it’s a popular hobby among people with too much time on their hands to try to get someone famous to respond to one of their tags. Oh, it’s also a good way for friends to communicate, too. A variant of the at-message is simply to reply to someone. In the iOS Twitter app, this involves hitting a button that looks like a typical “reply to email” button. Type your message, and the at-handle is automatically placed at the start of your message. Threaded conversations take place all the time on Twitter, with people replying and re-replying to one another. Finally, let’s discuss “retweets” and “modified tweets,” which are similar to one another with a key difference. Let’s say you found a tweet that you adore and you want to share it with your followers. You just hit the “retweet” button (the two arrows that wrap around to each other) and it’s added to your timeline, for all your followers to see. If you need to make a change to it—say, shorten the text or add a comment, it’s good form to use the “modified tweet” by placing MT in front of it. This alerts readers that you’ve changed the text from its original form.
Phil Hellmuth is one of the top poker players in the world. Follow him at @phil_hellmuth, or visit his website, philhellmuth.com
The bottom line: Don’t be intimidated. You can’t really mess up on Twitter. Well … okay, yes, you absolutely can. But you can also hit “delete” if you do.
SOUTHERNGAMING.COM
|
23