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Today in the 3-Bet we find poker scribe James McManus skewering Poker Princess Molly Bloom's "tell-all" book, another laughable poker article makes the rounds from Australia to New York and the record-breaking EPT Barcelona gets the full roundup treatment.
1) Poker Princess a Liar?
As far as mainstream reception of poker books go, Poker Princess Molly Bloom's "Molly's Game" has done OK for itself.
Rick Salomon: Not a guy who shoves blind.
Plenty of reviews made the rounds prior to and on its release and, we imagine, with Hollywood A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck doing the heavy-lifting sales have probably been brisk.
Only problem, famed poker writer James McManus says? The book is kind of light on, well, actual truth. At least as far as the poker is concerned. Among her more notable transgressions:
- Most players were dubbed "blind action" players, shoving all in willy nilly, when two of the game's regs - Gabe Kaplan and Rick Salomon - clearly wouldn't do that.
- Kaplan, a nonsmoker, was smoking a cigar
- Several of her "incredible" stories, like going 95 on Sunset Blvd and "working the best nights at all the hottest clubs in town" are literally unbelievable
- Suggesting millionaires and A-list actors needed "escapism" is a stretch at best
McManus's primary beef is her clear lack of poker understanding but it's a pleasurable skewering of the "breezy, unfactual" Mezrichian style, regardless.
2) New York Post Plays Fast and Loose with "Sleazy"
Didn't we just go over this a couple of weeks ago?
Another notable mainstream butchering of the poker world appeared this week in the form of Frank Chung's "Inside the Sleazy World of Professional Poker."
Sleazy world? Not so much.
Appearing first on news.com.au and popping up this weekend on the New York Post the article isn't *quite* as bad as Newsweek's but it does, uh, get a bit loose with the concept of a universally "sleazy" poker world.
Ostensibly telling the story of "Dave," a 30-year-old poker "pro" who technically works in IT and just came back from a trip to suss out the cash games in India ("Too risky," he says), the premise seems to be the unseemly nature of some of Dave's tablemates.
Unfortunately for the headline, not many examples of poker's seedy underbelly make an appearance outside of "Dave's" hearsay. In fact in the end it really just explains how a poker pro grinds out a living. Which, yawn.
In other words, not much to see here except the careless work of a copy editor trying to drum up a clickable headline. #whenwillitend.
3) EPT100 Barcelona Shatters Records. Lots and Lots of Records
Numbers at EPT100 seem to suggest poker's not so sleazy after all.
Meanwhile, back in the "real" poker world?
The EPT100 in Barcelona (and its Estrellas Poker Tour lead in) were busy utterly destroying EPT and European records for poker attendance.
Despite Spanish legislation making it virtually impossible for locals to want to play.
So, yeah. Not so "sleazy" after all, we guess. Just a few of the records shattered:
Largest EPT Super High Roller event
58 unique players plus 19 re-entries
NB: Breaks record for uniques and total entries (77)
Largest EPT High Roller event
290 unique players plus 88 re-entries
NB: Breaks record for uniques and total entries (378)
Largest EPT Main Event on European soil
1,496 players
NB: Third largest EPT anywhere, after PCA7 and PCA6
Largest EPT Day 1 starting field
1,021 players - Day 1B, Friday August 22, 2014
Largest EPT Day 2 starting field
889 players - Day 2, Saturday August 23, 2014
Largest EPT Day 3 starting field
292 - Day 3, Sunday August 24, 2014
Largest EPT field paid out
239 players (previously 232 at 2011 PCA)
Catch the livestream of all the final table action starting at 2 pm CET (8 am ET)
