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Today in the 3-Bet we find the WSOP Ladies Championship taking center stage, BrokeLiving JRB gets paid and Daniel Negreanu gets "tall poppied."
1) Spotlight On Ladies
Mixed into the middle of the World Series of Poker schedule for most of its history, the annual $1,000 Ladies Championship event has never truly drawn the spotlight it deserves.
Most of the attention, in fact, sadly has come from men buying into the tournament - and doing so so often the WSOP had to incorporate a $10,000 buy-in/$9,000 discount for ladies to keep the riff-raff out.
With a field of 819 last year, though, and a final table that included Amanda Musumeci, Amanda Baker, Natalia Breviglieri and Michelle Deng, it's an event stacked with more top talent than ever before.
This year, as Event #70 on the schedule and a lead-in to the $10,000 Main Event, it feels like it's finally getting some of the attention it deserves as a standalone event worth following closely.
Just a level into the action today and already 600+ players are in the field with the list of names including:
- Loni Harwood
- Vanessa Selbst
- Kitty Kuo
- Annette Obrestad
- Susie Isaacs
- Fatima Moreira de Melo
- Barbara Enright
- Lacey Jones
- Leo Margets
- Gaelle Baumann
- Natalia Breviglieri
- Vanessa Kade
- Jamie Kerstetter
- Jackie Glazier
- Oanh Bui
- Maria Konnikova
- Sofia Lovgren
- Karina Jett
- Mikiyo Aoki
and plenty more. We know we're excited to follow along. Head over to WSOP.com for live updates.
2) JRB Hits Quads for $360k Pot
We knew Farah Galfond had taken her game up a few levels over the last while as a $5/$10 reg at Aria, but playing $360,000 pots against Jean-Robert Bellande in the Bellagio big game?
That's the real deal - even if it didn't work out in her favor this hand:
That look when when you have a full house in a 360K pot & @BrokeLivingJRB turns over quads lol? #pokerpic.twitter.com/OMiVAfQFOu— Farah Galfond (@Farah_Galfond) July 2, 2017
We're guessing she might be a contender in the Ladies Championship today. A very strong contender.
3) Negreanu Tall Poppied?
A new term we've heard for the first time, care of Aussie James Obst:
tall pop·py syn·drome
noun AUSTRALIAN/NZ informal
a perceived tendency to discredit or disparage those who have achieved notable wealth or prominence in public life.
How did we come to hear it? After Daniel Negreanu's tough 5th-place finish in the $50k Player's Championship yesterday he took to Twitter to air more of his feelings towards the decidedly imperfect WSOP Player of the Year points system:
Nope. Even with a win in the $50k I'm still behind guys who are actually having losing summers! Near impossible for me to win this year. https://t.co/hUibEq2SNk— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 6, 2017
While I spend 5 days against the worlds best in one event for 180 points, others are racking up min cashes at 40-50 a pop. https://t.co/hUibEq2SNk— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 6, 2017
Bitter 5th Place finish in the most fun tourney of the year $50k PPC. 5 days of grinding hard totally disrespected by a shameful POY system.— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 7, 2017
I know I'm supposed to just "get over it" but I'm not there yet. I wanted to make history but this system is broken badly. https://t.co/KJAFWa0AOt— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 7, 2017
While plenty of his fans jumped to his support, a surprisingly large group went the other way and criticized Daniel for not caring quite as much when the system "worked in his favor" in the past.
Yeah like if u had a bracelet side bet and played every event and min cashed a bunch and won the award, I am sure u would turn it down https://t.co/VQ2z5aHICa— Blake Bohn (@bkbohn) July 7, 2017
And my point is it was flawed when u won towards u, no complaints then https://t.co/U0ScsjEGTm— Blake Bohn (@bkbohn) July 7, 2017
Cue the intro to Tall Poppy from Obst:
Tbh I admire @RealKidPoker openness re wanting POY instead of being coy. System indefensible, shame to see the rampant tall poppy syndrome— James Obst (@JamesObst) July 7, 2017
With the Player of the Year award including events at WSOP Europe in the fall it's a discussion we're not likely to see the end of soon. Some stats to mull over:
Current POY leader is Ryan Hughes, who has an astonishing 16 cashes so far - the biggest, though, for just 62k. Negreanu's WSOP so far:
- 10 cashes in 27 events
- 8 top 18 finishes
- 4 final tables
- Over $680k in cashes
He's 5th in the POY ranking - over 180 points behind Hughes. See the full POY ranking here.
