The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is new set of chair beads, some cheap trucker speed and a wide-open stretch of afternoon poker news blacktop clear to the horizon.
Got a tip for a future 3-Bet? Drop a note in the comments and we'll gladly take a look.
Today in the 3-Bet we find a massive $400k bad beat jackpot hit at Playground Poker in Montreal, Xuan Liu angling for a long day of poker and Marvin Rettenmaier puts the kibosh on the shot clock fanfare.
1) Quad 7s No Good; $400k Makes Up for it
Day 1a at the WPT Canadian Spring Championship is underway but, while the action has been good, the real fireworks have come over in the cash-game section.
Specifically: an epic $400k Bad Beat Jackpot was hit when quads sevens were no good against quad 10s:
Everybody in the cash-game room got a piece, too. And even the impossibly poker-rich Antonio Esfandiari was impressed:
Arrived @PLAYGROUNDPOKER for day1WPT within 30 min I busted AND witnessed someone hit a 400k Bad Beat JACKPOT 77 lose to 1010 #SoSick— Antonio Esfandiari (@MagicAntonio) March 27, 2014
Turns out the secret was just busting out of the tournament. We can do that:
The guy who won BB jackpot @PLAYGROUNDPOKER (Richard Figiel from Mont) started at my tourney table, got broke, & then hit BB jack for $157k!— Mike Sexton (@MikeSexton_WPT) March 27, 2014
2) Xuan Liu: Bright-Eyed and Ready to Play
Speaking of WPT Montreal plenty of notables, including the above-mentioned Esfandiari and Gavin Smith, have made the trek to Kahnawake for another shot at WPT glory.
Among them is PokerListings fav Xuan Liu, who might be among the only poker players in the world fresh enough at 11 am to hope for an epic day:
11am start...let's make this a 12 hour poker day @WPT Canadian Spring Championship @888poker— Xuan Liu (@xxl23) March 27, 2014
So far so good for Xuan as she hit an early double up and is cruising on around 76k in chips as they hit Level 7. Should things go south, though, she can still rebuy on Day 1b and Day 1c.
Tune in to the WPT Live Updates for up-to-minute coverage.
3) Rettenmaier Not So Keen on Shot Clock
Who shall listen to my songs if we play so fast?
Plenty of buzz circulated lately about the WPT considering implementing a shot clock at future events.
Nothing is set yet, of course, but the general consensus among players surveyed in LA (80% in favor) and poker vets like Lee Davy is yeah, full steam ahead.
Not so fast, says German pro and general good times guy Marvin Rettenmaier. As he says in a new blog post keeping amateurs in the game should be more important:
"We need to really ask what the goal of implementing a shot clock is. There has been a lot of talk about how we need to make poker more accessible and enjoyable for the amateur players rather than the pros. I think a shot clock would be detrimental to that goal...
"We’re putting up more barriers to poker with a shot clock, newcomers are already scared when they have to play in a live setting for the first time. Now you want to make it even harder by giving them time restrictions."
Rettenmaier's primary concern is a 30-second shot clock, as suggested, is too fast although any kind of clock is still a detriment.
As always Rettenmaier is a voice of reason in a world gone mad; read the full piece on the partypoker blog.
