PokerStars used social monitoring tool Followerwonk and Likealyzer to find out which poker players are the most popular on social media nowadays. Here are the results! Click here for part 1!
In 6th place is Antonio Esfandiari. "The Magician", as he is often called, is one of the old-school live pros, he has appeared on the early seasons of High Stakes Poker, which is when the audience had the chance to get to know him.
He won the inaugural $1 million buyin Big One for One Drop to send him to the top of the all-time money list in 2012. Esfandiari had a TV show called I Bet You, with poker’s other entertainer, Phil Laak, and he is the face of World Poker Tour also.
He also starred in Entourage, and played an undercover police officer in the movie Freelancers. In January 2014 Antonio partnered with Ultimate Poker, and started to shoot a web reality series called Strip Magic. In this show, Esfandiari performs street magic in Las Vegas along with exclusive interviews.
Antonio Esfandiari
Next on the list is Jonathan Duhamel. Duhamel won the Main Event in 2010, but he became famous months earlier, when he delivered a huge bad beat to Matt Affleck to end his run in 13th place.
With that hand, he gained the chip lead and eventually went on to win more than $8.9 million. Duhamel is part of the group of Canadian live tournament grinders who are crushing the scene lately. Duhamel was on national news after he was beat up and robbed in his home in an assault that his ex-girlfriend planned. Jonathan uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep in touch with his fans, and often gives opinions about the industry. Jonathan is a likeable guy and has inspired a lot of Canadians to play poker which is exactly what a World Champ should be doing.
Jonathan Duhamel
In 8th place sits Sam Trickett. Trickett is one of the biggest lifetime winners in the live tournament circuit, after coming second to Esfandiari in the Big One for One Drop event as well as dominating the different live tournaments throughout the world. Trickett is an Everest Poker sponsored pro and had an Everest promotion built around him ("Share 10% of Sam’s WSOP winnings!").
His girlfriend recently became a PokerNews announcer, he was chipleader of the Big One for One Drop after Day 1 and he is a regular at the Macao high stakes cash games, so it’s pretty safe to say that Sam is going to be in the spotlight for the next couple years.
Sam Trickett
In 9th place is none other than Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier. The Frenchman has been traveling the live tournament circuit for years, amassing winnings of over $10 million. Bertrand is the first ever player to reach the SuperNova Elite VIP level on PokerStars and also holds the world record for playing the most Sit and Go tournaments in an hour on PokerStars.
ElkY uses Twitter frequently to share his opinion and about his travels, and he is probably the most famous French player around. He is also a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization. The Club’s objective is to promote and serve peace in the world through sport.
ElkY breaking the SnG World Record
Rounding out our top 10 is none other than Phil Hellmuth, the Poker Brat. It’s quite surprising to see him only at the 10th place in the list, the Poker Brat is really active on both Twitter (where he routinely shares tales about his meetings and dinners with famous people and celebrities) and on Facebook (where he often posts hand histories or short tournament reports).
The most likely reason why Hellmuth barely made the top 10 is probably that he doesn’t travel a lot, so it’s hard to keep both USA and the rest of the world fans interested with his stories. Despite any rating, Phil Hellmuth, with his polarizing personality, has probably one of the biggest fan bases in todays poker. According to him, more than a million pieces of different Phil Hellmuth merchandise has been sold through his webshop, so he probably doesn’t worry about his "Likealyzer" rating, which is the third lowest in our top15 list.
"You better retweet me, kiddo!"
