The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a sunny afternoon, an answer do and a heartwarming ride on an afternoon poker news bicycle built for two.
Got a tip for a future 3-Bet? Drop a note in the comments and we'll gladly take a look.
Today in the 3-Bet we find Phil Hellmuth passing along one of his 13 WSOP bracelets to his "bestie," Brad Booth still on his crusade to bring the Poker Brat to accountability and Nolan Dalla tells us what books we need to have in our poker library.
1) Hellmuth Gives 13th to Chamath
If you had to guess who Phil Hellmuth considers his best friend, who would you start with? Himself? His wife? Daniel Negreanu? Mike Matusow? A valet guy somewhere?
Turns out Hellmuth gives former Facebook VP turned venture capitalist/Golden State Warriors co-owner and long-time poker pal Chamath Palihapitya the nod at #1.
Chamath also gets Phil's 13th WSOP bracelet:
PIC: bye bye WSOP Bracelet #13. Gave #WSOPBracelet13 to my best friend @Chamath. Gave 10 to family, 1 to bestie http://t.co/YYsjTEQhoR — phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) April 10, 2014
It's kind of an odd declaration for a man nearing 50 to make, sure. But we're all about love here. Hellmuth followed up by sharing where the rest of his bracelets have landed:
WSOP Bracelets: 1 & 12 me, 2 wifey, 3 4 mom dad, 5 sister Ann, 6 bro/law John, 7 8 sons Phillip Nick, 9 10 11 bro Dave sis's Kerry Molly — phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) April 10, 2014
2) Booth Says Hellmuth Has UB Demons
Someone who's definitely not getting one of Phil's bracelets? Former High Stakes Poker star and victim of the UltimateBet superuser scandal, Brad Booth.
Booth has implied pretty strongly over the last few years that Hellmuth - once the face of UB - has some culpability in the debacle although he's yet to come out with specifics as to Hellmuth's particular responsibility.
@phil_hellmuth if only the respectable @chamath found out about your inner BullShit at UltimateBet he would never except it - U R A POS PH — Brad Booth (@YukonBrad) April 10, 2014
Booth has struggled with personal debt, gambling and accountability himself over the last couple of years including a money exchange gone sour with high-stakes regular Doug Polk.
Neither Hellmuth nor Chamath have responded to Booth's tweet.
3) The 10 Most Important Poker Books Ever Written (Non-Strategy)
This one made the cut.
One of poker's great storytellers Dalla shared his picks for "Poker's 10 Most Important Books" in a new blog post yesterday and, having read and loved most of them, we can't wait to dive into the rest.
These aren't poker strategy books, if that's what you're looking for - these are non-fiction books that captured a time and place in poker and simultaneously moved the game forward. As Dalla writes:
"...the most meaningful poker books are those rare few texts which broadened poker’s mass appeal and gave us a greater understanding of things we didn’t know before.
"A meaningful poker book challenges old assumptions we once held and reshapes our vision. This applies to the way others look at the game and they way we see ourselves.
"The best authors even took risks and made sacrifices in pursuit of new subject matter and came to unexpected conclusions."
A few "honorable mentions" appear too including his own poker narrative One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, which could easily make the Top 10 as well.
Poker Face by David Hayano is now on the immediate must-read list.
