The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a fresh map, a 30-day bus pass and no idea where our next afternoon poker news journey might land us.
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Today in the 3-Bet we find Mohsin Charania locking up a poker Triple Crown, Jamie Staples sidetracked in Romania and the 'secret' history of weed at the WSOP.
1) Charania Seals Triple Crown
For most of the past decade or so there have been three major tours that laid claim to the most prestigious tournament titles in poker:
Elite company for Charania.
- The World Poker Tour (WPT)
- the European Poker Tour (EPT) and
- the World Series of Poker (WSOP)
The EPT is now a thing of the past and with events like the Super High Roller Bowl and the burgeoning partypoker Live tour, winning a "Triple Crown" in poker might not stay linked to those 3 acronyms forever.
Still, it's a pretty dazzling accomplishment to lay claim to a title from all 3 of those poker behemoths and, up until yesterday, just 5 players had done it:
- Gavin Griffin
- Roland de Wolfe
- Jake Cody
- Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier
- Davidi Kitai
Add one more name to that list today: Mohsin Charania.
The former EPT Grand Final winner and 2-time WPT champ put a WSOP gold bracelet on his resume yesterday in Event #52, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, to complete the trilogy.
The $364,438 he added to his almost $6m career earnings is far from his largest score but, as he told poker media after his win yesterday, locking up a Triple Crown still feels "pretty damn awesome."
We can imagine. Check the full write-up of his win at WSOP.com
2) Staples in Limbo in Romania
The life of a travelling poker pro/streamer like Team PokerStars Online's Jamie Staples can be pretty stressful as it is.
Stream on hold for now.
There are the ups and downs of poker variance, setting up and moving on from place to place and, of course, just navigating the basics of day-to-day life in countries where you don't speak the language or have the lay of the land.
Sometimes it can be pretty awesome, as it was last week when Staples won 5 online tournaments from Split, Croatia, and prepped for his next 45-day haul in Bucharest, Romania.
Then, unfortunately, things can take a turn pretty quickly. Upon arriving in Bucharest and going through the process of setting up a new home/grind station, getting gym memberships, buying food etc, they hit a hiccup. A major hiccup.
Despite getting the green light from their PokerStars contact prior to moving, as a Canadian Staples can't actually play from Romania. It's a .com/.eu thing.
Whatever the reason, they're out of luck. And now have to move on to get back to streaming for his large fanbase asap. It's a bummer, for sure. But given the confusion from Stars they're going to help get things back on track on their dime.
The big question now: Where should they go? Check the latest from Staples in the video below. Tell them where they should go and play in the comments.
3) The 'Secret' History of Weed at the WSOP
Let's cut to the chase: The fact that poker players, young and old, tend to smoke a lot of pot wherever they are - the World Series of Poker included - isn't exactly a 'secret.' At least to anyone that's been to/played/worked there over the last decade.
Thriller dance was weed influenced. You don't say ...
That said, it's not as though there's been a lot of stuff written about it, either - or on how it may help/hinder their poker games.
We've done a deep dive on how various drugs affect your poker ability before and now Derrick Oliver Dewan has taken a crack at exposing the weed culture in a new piece for Leafly.com.
With legal recreational marijuana now in play in Nevada the piece, called "The Secret History of Cannabis at the World Series of Poker," explores the pervasiveness, proliferation and risks of weed culture among poker players.
Dutch Boyd, Brian Micon and Allen Kessler are among the pros to give their takes. Check it out.
