PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton Under Fire for Tweeting Palestinian Flag
Xenia Luch
12 October 2023
Comment 0

English poker pro Sam Grafton sparked controversy when he tweeted a Palestinian flag on X (formerly known as Twitter) a few days ago. His post drew a lot of criticism and outrage from many poker fans and players, who accused him of being anti-Semitic.

But the heat wasn’t just on Grafton. It also put PokerStars, the popular poker platform that Grafton represents as an ambassador, under pressure. Many are now demanding that PokerStars fire the Englishman for his political stance.
One of them is Israeli poker player Elkana Itskovitch, who tweeted, “It must be nice living in a big, secured house away from those who want to harm you and being able to have strong opinions on shit you know nothing about. @PokerStars I hope this antisemitic MF will be out of your payroll soon”.
Many other, much nastier comments have been made but are not fit for print.
What’s most striking is that Sam Grafton, despite the widespread backlash, has stayed remarkably calm. He didn’t delete his tweet or try to apologize.
It’s worth noting that so far, there’s no word from PokerStars on how they will react to their ambassador’s controversial move.
To recap, on the morning of October 7th, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, launched the biggest attack on Israel in the last 50 years. This attack killed about 1,000 people. Israel hit back with retaliatory strikes, killing hundreds in the process.