The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is an early tee time, a light lunch and plenty of pep left for a spontaneous foray into the afternoon poker news 10-Game HR. Have a hot tip for a future 3-Bet? Drop us a note about it in the comments. Today in the 3-Bet we find a good deal on a $265 Ben Lamb investment, Dawn Till Dusk popping in Nottingham and a triumphant finish for Stu Ungar.
1) Blue Light Special on Lamb
Remember Ben Lamb? Lamb stormed to the forefront of the poker consciousness back in 2011 when he made the World Series of Poker his own personal ATM. Winning $5.3m over the summer along with his first bracelet and WSOP POY, Lamb capped things off with a 3rd-place finish in the WSOP Main Event. It was a stunning collection of results in one 3-week stretch and is still the bulk of his $6.8m in career live earnings.
Since then Lamb has stepped back into a more leisurely grind of golf and high-stakes Vegas cash games but occasionally will pop up in a tournament if it suits his interest. Spurred by Daniel Negreanu and Brian Rast, the big-name Vegas pros have organized a new $25k 10-Game Mixed High Roller they hope to run regularly and the first ran last night. The winner? Mr. Ben Lamb, who clipped Negreanu to get his "yearly cash out of the way" for 2017:
If you had the foresight to put a few bucks down on Lamb over on PokerShares, that yearly cash for $280k or so would have done you well as 1% of his action was selling for just $265. A bargain and a half, in retrospect. Rates are already up for the upcoming PokerStars Championship in Monte Carlo 100k Super High Roller, too, if you're interested.
2) partypoker Millions Popping
The much anticipated £6m partypoker MILLIONS is underway at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham with a double-header of great action to indulge in. Chidwick crushing again. Day 1d of the £5,300 Main Event - which has £1m guaranteed to the winner - has around 167 players left as they hit the dinner break with Stephen Chidwick and Natalia Breviglieri among them.
The showcase event today, though, is the £10,600 High Roller which is both live on stream and stuffed with premium players for your viewing pleasure. Among the final 30 still in the hunt are Ben Heath, Max Silver, Vojtech Ruzicka, Joao Simao, Niall Farrell & Dominik Nitsche. The poker is fantastic and the commentary, from Paul Zimbler and Nik Persaud, may be better.
3) Stu Ungar = GOAT
The great Stu Ungar is universally considered - at least among those who played with him - the best poker/card player in history. Still the greatest. And despite a revolutionary turn in the global breadth and talent in the poker industry since his death in 1998, few doubt he would STILL be the best player in the game today. As Nic Cage would say, that's high praise. But he was that extraordinary of a talent. If you doubt it, check these numbers: With $3,675,231 in career live earnings Ungar is still 162nd on the all-time US money list and 269th overall.
His last cash came in 1997! That's ... astonishing. Maybe even more astonishing is that he made $3.6m in live poker in that era. Another context Jeff Gross saw it in? Perhaps the greatest "walkoff" tournament victory of all time: It's a tragic story any way you cut it but it still astounds just how many amazing pre-boom results Stu had. And fitting that his last cash was his 3rd win in the greatest of all poker tournaments. Check his results out here.
