The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a pair of gold shoes, an urge to rhyme and the translucent aura of someone with that afternoon poker news glow.
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Today in the 3-Bet we find an understated St. Petersburgian slaying a Russian dragon, Fedor Holz is not real and Phil Hellmuth has his WSOP glow on.
1) Shirshikov Holds Off Vovtroy
The first-ever PokerStars Championship held in Russia - PSC Sochi - has reached its end with a few very notable surprises along the way.
Even vovtroy a little surprised.
The first surprise? With a $2.6m USD guarantee and a dedicated/growing Russian poker market the main event only drummed up 387 entries - leaving a $500k overlay.
Maybe it was the imminent start of the WSOP or the SHRB; maybe it was a collection of visa/travel fears. But it didn't quite have the international draw expected.
Two international stars who did make the trek, though - Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier and Chris Moneymaker - seemed to enjoy their time tremendously and also surprised a bit by both making deep runs.
Regardless of the INT turnout a vibrant and creative field of local players brought a ton of energy to the event and, to no surprise, dominated the final table participants alongside an Iranian and 2 Kazakhstanis.
In the end it was St. Petersburg pro Pavel "OMGinmarsat8" Shirshikov who emerged triumphant, shocking Russian end boss Vladimir 'vovtroy' Troyanovskiyheads-up for the win.
Shirshikov's take? About 29m rubles, or roughly $500,000. A nice score anyway you slice it. Troyanovskiy scooped up around $326k - or just enough to buy in to the Super High Roller Bowl next year.
Check the full recap of the final table (and the tournament series) on the PokerStars blog. Final-table results below:
PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event
Dates: May 25-31, 2017
Buy-in: ₽318,000 (approx. $5,590)
Players: 387
Prize Pool: ₽150 million (approx. $2.65 million)
1. Pavel Shirshikov Russia ₽29,100,000 (US$514,895)
2. Vladimir Troyanovskiy Russia ₽18,450,000 (US$326,454)
3. Seyed Ghavam Iran ₽13,335,000 (US$235,949)
4. Dmitry Vitkind Russia ₽10,785,000 (US$190,830)
5. Lavrentiy Ni Kazakhstan ₽8,535,000 (US$151,018)
6. Timur Bubnov Russia PokerStars qualifier ₽6,570,000 (US$116,250)
7. Daniyar Aubakirov Kazakhstan ₽4,890,000 (US$86,524)
8. Nadar Kakhmazov Russia ₽3,540,000 (US$62,637)
2) Fedor Holz is Not Real
Probably should give just him the One Drop title now and get it over with:
Back-to-back 50k wins! Took it down for 415k. Feeling ready for the 111k Onedrop! pic.twitter.com/YCai63HsZU— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy) June 1, 2017
Did we mention his new Primed Mind app which offers to unlock your own amazingness within? Oh, we did, right. Really leaning towards giving it a go but now worried we might just become superhuman and see the future. Still, retirement at 25 does sound pretty appealing.
3) Hellmuth Has That Glow Glow Glow?
The World Series of Poker 2017 is now underway so, as one of the WSOP's all-time greats, we're not surprised to see Phil Hellmuth is in good spirits - even after busting/ranting his way out of the $300k Super High Roller Bowl in classic Hellmuthian fashion.
Still not sure what to make of this succession of tweets, though. He's OK, right?
I have the glow, glow, glow; I have the glow, glow, glow: #PHGLOW! Looking forward to seven weeks worth of @WSOP, starting today. #Glowing— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) May 31, 2017
You always won,
every time you placed a bet,
You're still damn good,
No ones gotten to you yet
Every time they were sure they had you caught— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) May 31, 2017
You were quicker than they thought
You'd just turn your back and walk
You always said the cards would never do you wrong #PHGLOW#POSITIVITY— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) May 31, 2017
I'm a lucky lucky guy, who is truly blessed. Im having fun everyday, even when I work hard, feeling the glow #PHNiceLife #POSITIVITY#PHGLOW— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) June 1, 2017
