The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a painstakingly curated bucket list of must-try's knocked off before the afternoon poker news casket is even hewn.
Any tips for a future 3-Bet, feel free to drop a note in the comments.
Today in the 3-Bet we find Daniel Negreanu blazing through his list of goals for 2013, more on the high-stakes poker pros indicted as part of an FBI takedown of the Russian Mob and Vanessa Selbst earning a major award from a flagship publication of the LGBT community.
1) Negreanu Flying Through Goals for 2013
DNegs: Flying high in 2013
We highlighted Daniel Negreanu's rather ambitious list of goals for 2013 before, but by the way his year's going it looks like he'll have to make a few changes or have nothing to work for past June.
Coming off a sweet win at the WSOP APAC main event - which ticked off a few boxes on its own - Negreanu's pretty much met most of his 10 major goals for the year already. In case you missed them the first time, the goals included:
- Cash for $1.5 million in tournaments (APAC win was $1m AUD)
- Win a bracelet (check - and now he's upped it to two more)
- Move up on the WSOP Cash list (also check)
- Move up to 35th on WSOP Earnings List (pretty much a lock)
- End 2013 in GPI Top 10 (already at #24 and rising)
In other words he'd basically have to airball almost every event he plays the rest of 2013 to not hit most of his targets.
Given how tight his game looked in Australia and how much fun he had, we bet he'll have to throw this list away by the first week of WSOP Vegas and start fresh.
Catch up on his extensive poker accomplishments in this retrospective piece on the PokerStars blog.
2) High-Stakes Pros Reeling from FBI Sting
FBI photo of Bill Edler
In case you missed it yesterday, some well known high-stakes poker pros were among the 34 people indicted in a massive FBI sting aimed at bringing down a Russian organized crime syndicate.
2009 WPT Foxwoods champ Vadim Trincher was one of the centerpieces, accused of being a syndicate leader and of recorded personal threats for unpaid debts.
Caught in the crossfire were recognizable names Peter Feldman, Abe Mosseri, Justin Smith, John Hanson and Bill Edler, who were either linked to underground poker games or illegal bookmaking.
Edler and Mosseri are even considered fugitives from the law by the FBI. Also caught up in the indictments were famed Hollywood poker madam Molly Bloom and Russian art mogul Hillel (“Helly”) Nahmad.
Make no mistake though -- this is not a sting targeting poker. This is about cutting the legs out from under the Russian mob.
How it all shakes out from here is hard to predict but our support goes out to any pros and their families while the evidence is parsed.
3) Selbst Named One of Advocate.com's 40 Under 40
Won't be the last award for Selbst.
As a poker player, it's one thing to be recognized within the community as a great person or tough out at the table. It's another altogether to be recognized as an inspiration or role model in the world at large, and few poker players ever reach those heights.
Vanessa Selbst is one of the few whose poker accomplishments are matched by her commitment to something above and beyond the felt.
In this case it's her passion for LGBT rights that caught the attention of Advocate.com, which named her one of their most inspiring people under 40. In their words:
"When Vanessa Selbst took home her biggest winnings at a French poker tournament, she and her friends paraded around the Cannes airport with the giant cardboard check for $1.8 million.
Her sense of humor and emphasis on smart card playing have helped Selbst weather the pressure of professional poker to become the game’s top-earning woman, netting over $7 million so far.
Selbst is proud to be the first out LGBT poker player, but she says gender and sexuality matter little at the table. The Yale Law School grad began working with clinics devoted to LGBT rights, which she plans to soon take up full-time."
