Poker influencer Abby Merk gets in hot water with hypocritical statement regarding objectifying women

Abby Merk is 25 years old. She's been in the poker community for a few years, and is best known as a short-form content creator.

For awhile she was relatively unknown, doing video reporting for various poker websites, and some short-form content.

She's the blond in this picture:

https://x.com/abbypoker_/status/1991715540621246733


She's presently a sponsored player by BetMGM.

She came to the attention of poker Twitter last year, when she made a somewhat cringy video about the "Onyx Cup" series in Cyprus. Her video was meant to poke fun at how no one had heard of the Onyx Cup before, and had her going around the hotel finding various cups, and repeatedly asking, "Is THIS the Onyx cup?"

Kinda juvenile and lame, but it didn't sit well with some women when she pointed to her bra and asked, "Are THESE the Onyx cups?" Those female critics, several of whom were better known than Abby, claimed that she was serving as a poor example of women in poker, and sexualizing herself for views.

Most people weren't on Abby's side. The women felt the video was objectifying, and the men just found the whole thing to be cringe. Abby was making the video for a poker news site (I think poker.org), and they deleted the video after the criticism, presumably at her request. Because it was a minor issue, the story quickly died down, and people forgot about it.

I had mixed feelings about this. I felt that, yes, the video was lame and stupid, but I couldn't fault Abby for using her looks and very mild double entendres to get clicks. That goes on in pretty much every industry. I will never fault people, male or female, for using their natural attributes to get noticed. If I were a pretty young female instead of an over-50 dude, I'd also be using my looks to get additional opportunities and sponsorships in the game.

In a way, I actually admired her don't-give-a-shit attitude. Even after the controversy, she continued to post pics and videos in bikinis, extremely tight pants, and other semi-provocative outfits. Yeah, these wardrobe choices were for an obvious purpose, but who cares? As the old saying goes, "sex sells". And nothing she did was overtly sexual or crude -- just a lot of pictures basically showing off her body, while pretending just to be doing mundane things while on poker travel.

https://x.com/abbypoker_/status/1978876958105833786

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nAOEOo4ZP9k


However, today she waded into a pool where she shouldn't have been, and the backlash has been harsh.

I'll explain in the next post...

Today's controversy began with something posted by ClubWPTGold, very likely from our own SrslySirius:

https://x.com/ClubWPTGold/status/1991186529117684068


The above girl is "Sashimi", who appeared a number of times on Hustler Casino Live. She's best known for two things there -- wearing a pair of fake bare breasts, which many idiots thought were real and then clutched pearls when she flashed them -- and for being on the receiving end of some weird Nick Vertucci sexual harassment on stream, where he kept touching her ear despite her protests.

Sashimi was clearly having a good time in the video, and it was harmless.

The ClubWPTGold post was meant to lament how poker used to have all kinds of displays like this in the 2000s, but today has been pared down to quiet GTO nerds in hoodies, calculating each other's ranges.



Anyway, Abby made the ill-advised decision to comment on this, from the "don't objectify women" standpoint, which was bizarre:

https://x.com/abbypoker_/status/1991697252734366105

Quote:

---

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?? “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.
@ClubWPTGold @WPT

---

She then tagged two of the female ClubWPTGold ambassadors, Jamie Kerstetter and Nikki Limo, for comment. Neither responded.

Embedded Tweet

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Srsly got involved at this point, jokingly asking Kerstetter why she posted this (when of course he was the one who did, and Jamie had nothing to do with it):

https://x.com/abbypoker_/status/1991702403603919088

https://x.com/SrslySirius/status/1991742787663118509



All of this kicked off a shitstorm of mostly negative response to Abby, most of whom pointed out that she has been sexualizing herself for clicks for years now, and that she's the last person who should be complaining about another woman doing it.

Embedded Tweet

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Then Haley Hanna, who was the main woman to call out Abby's "cups" video last year, got involved, and things got even more heated...

https://x.com/VegasHayls/status/1991716097104740502

https://x.com/VegasHayls/status/1991706818440282206

https://x.com/VegasHayls/status/1991708877965128146


Most notably, she claimed above that "my success has nothing to do with my appearance, nor your post on twitter. when i post something that i feel i look good in, it gets called a thirst trap whether i meant it to or not", which is incredibly delusional. Does she really think that?

Like, it's totally fine that her looks HAVE assisted her in getting noticed on social media, but to deny that (and claim her clothing choice is just "what she looks good in") is simply denying obvious reality.



Oddly, Abby conceded that some of her prior videos/pics were sexualized, but claimed that these were from 2023, and she has since changed. From I can see, her content is still very similar to 2023.

https://x.com/VegasHayls/status/1991713867505029427



For example, here is the outfit she wore to last week's "No Gamble, No Future" appearance:

https://x.com/abbypoker_/status/1989443031410659358



Once again, if she wants to dress like this for attention among the poker incels and dirty old men, because it helps her social media career, more power to her. But she can't have it both ways, and call out other women for objectifying themselves.


Obviously her claim that her looks have nothing to do with her success got a lot of pushback. Even Rob Kuhn, an ACR ambassador who otherwise hates ClubWPTGold, had to speak up:

https://x.com/JokicMVP03/status/1991720348056965565



I'll post my conclusion in the next message.

I don't dislike Abby, and I don't think she's a bad person.

I have always thought she's just a bit on the immature and naive side, and this is a good example.

I really do think that, in her mind, she's believes she's just "looking cute" in her clothing choices, and her social media notoriety has simply come from her creative content. Abby saw Sashimi dancing like a stripper on a poker table as a joke, and thought to herself, "Wow, why are women in poker degrading themselves like this, and why is ClubWPTGold amplifying it?"

Abby didn't stop for a second to consider WHY people have paid attention to her own content for the past 2+ years, rather than, say, male reporters for Pokernews.

Her post about Sashimi really surprised me, because I had always assumed Abby knew exactly what she was doing, and just didn't give a shit if some people didn't approve. It's pretty amazing that she legitimately didn't see her content as sexualized, even though it clearly was, and she seemed to put an effort to make it that way.

Delusion is a powerful drug.

I guess we will see what type of content she creates going forward.

Interestingly, she did NOT delete the tweet, despite all of the bad response. I'll give her credit there. Most people would.

Bonus content:

A "No Gamble No Future" hand versus David Baker:

https://x.com/PokerGO/status/1989538782350033352


(For whatever reason, it's not embedding, so just click on it)

She Barrels into him stone dead with only Preflop equity, terrible setup

No such thing as negative attention, only attention.

Never heard of her before now.