There was some major drama last week in the poker world that all started with the repost of a video on social media. The video shows some "Friendsgiving" fun with a woman dancing and twerking on a poker table.
You know, typical Friendsgiving day behavior.
Everyone is having a good time and the Twitter account belonging to ClubWPT Gold, which is an online platform owned by the World Poker Tour, posted it with the caption, "GTO players took this from us."
Innocent enough, or so, they thought when they posted the tweet. Of course, there wouldn’t be any drama if everyone enjoyed the 25-second clip.
Abby Merk, a professional poker player and brand ambassador, responded to the wholesome twerking video by expressing her disappointment with ClubWPT Gold for posting it.
"another unbelievably disappointing post from clubwpt gold. part of having a platform is knowing how to use it. what could possibly have been the point of this except for to get clicks by demeaning women??," she wrote.
"'gto players took this from us' as if this is what you WANT TO SEE WOMEN REDUCED TO??? sex symbols in the industry? lame as f. do better."
She then sat back and waited for the flood of "you go girl" responses to arrive. I'm not sure how many of those or similar approvals she received, but I do know she was called out for posting thirst traps on Instagram that she had likely hoped people forgot about.
No such luck. A self-described "poker socialite" by the name of Hayley Hanna remembered, and she had the receipts to go along with her allegations.
The Poker World Somehow Found a Way to Turn a Goofy Friendsgiving Twerking Video Into a Full-Blown Meltdown
Hayley fired off a warning shot before reaching for her evidence. She wasn’t there to play around with someone going after a twerking video with thirst traps in their past.
"Yoo Abby we are cool and everything but this is laughable. Yes- I agree the post they made is lame- but to make a whole feminist stance about it when you actively attempt to post thirst traps daily on IG and make content centered around your appearance is a bit hypocritical no?," she replied.
"Literally half the reason you’re on the map is because I called you out a year ago for making poker content about your bra/cup size and called you a clown."
Abby should have known better. She'd been in the ring with Hayley before, but she couldn't help herself. She had to take it a step further.
"i appreciate the fact that you agree with the sentiment. but my success has nothing to do with my appearance, nor your post on twitter," part of Abby's response read. "when i post something that i feel i look good in, it gets called a thirst trap whether i meant it to or not."
That's when Hayley dropped her receipts on the table.
As quickly as the twerking video drama had arrived, it had come to an end. Hayley landed a knockout blow and Abby had no choice but to concede. She was in no shape to continue.
She wrote, "honestly gonna give u this one. this post was not really how i wanna be represented and ive learned a lot ab how i think i should be portraying myself online since then. my content has changed a lot though from two summers ago though. always working to be better. this post was def a miss :)."
Hayley could have easily trashed her opponent during her victory lap, but that's not why she went after Abby in the first place. It was to keep her honest.
I'll end this world of poker twerking video/thirst trap drama with these words of wisdom from Hayley. This is all she wanted:
"FWIW I don’t care if women want to post like this at all. Get that bag! Flaunt it if ya got it! I’m team woman! But don’t then shit on other companies for doing something similar imho."
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