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In today’s Daily 3-Bet we’ll take a look at that record-breaking Colossus winner, some very shady cheating allegations and Max Pescatori securing a bracelet for Italy at the 2015 WSOP.
1) Cord Garcia Wins Record-Setting WSOP Colossus
Ray Henson finishes third.
If you build it they will come.
And they did, 22,374 of them to be exact. That’s the total number of entries in the record-breaking 2015 WSOP $565 buy-in Colossus.
Circuit grinder Cord Garcia outlasted every single one of them to secure a $638,880 payday last night, which represents a 1,000+% return on his investment of $565.
Garcia, who hails from Houston, Tx, more than doubled his overall lifetime live tournament earnings with the victory.
Noted pros Ray Henson and Kenny Hallaert fell short finishing third and fifth respectively.
Here’s a complete look at the final-table payouts for an event that’s all but certain to return for the 2016 WSOP:
1. Cord Garcia - $638,880
2. Brad McFarland - $386,253
3. Ray Henson - $308,761
4. Paul Lentz- $234,927
5. Kenny Hallaert - $182,348
6. Adi Prasetyo - $140,956
7. Garry Simms - $109,632
8. David Farber - $87,817
9. Anthony Blanda - $67,681
2) Cheating Allegations Run Rampant in $10k HU
Connor Drinan thinks something is up.
At this point it’s just allegations but there appears to have been some very weird activity in the $10k heads-up event.
Pro Connor Drinan got a very strange feeling when he lost heads-up to unknown Czech player Valeriu Coca. It was like Coca knew exactly what he had.
Drinan later talked to Coca’s future opponents Matt Marifioti and Aaron Mermelstein (who lost to Coca) and they said they felt the same way.
As Drinan later explained on TwoPlusTwo:
Our speculation is that he was using some sort of invisible ink in combination with special sunglasses. We haven't heard much from WSOP since the match, but what little I have heard I would rather keep to myself for now and allow WSOP time to finish the investigation and make their own statement.
Coca finally bowed out of the tournament against Keith Lehr but Drinan feels he may have been worried about exposure and purposely lost the match.
At this point everything is merely speculation but WSOP media man Seth Palensky did provide this comment on Twitter:
@Kevmath We take these types of allegations very seriously & an investigation began immediately upon learning them. It is ongoing. (1/2)— Seth Palansky (@SethPalansky) June 4, 2015
@Kevmath 2/2 Preliminary testing of cards show no markings or use of any foreign solution. Further tests will be done to confirm initial.— Seth Palansky (@SethPalansky) June 4, 2015
3) Pescatori Snags Third Bracelet in Razz
Max Pescatori
Famed Italian pro Max Pescatori went nearly seven years without a bracelet but he bumped the trend last night.
Pescatori outlasted 462 to win his third gold bracelet and $155,947.
The Milan native, who now lives in Las Vegas, now has $3.7 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, which places him second all-time on the Italian money list, right behind upcoming pro Mustapha Kanit who has $3.7 million.
It hasn’t been an easy go for Italian players in recent years as the government has cracked down on online poker in a huge way.
Many Italian online grinders have been forced to other countries in order to have access to the complete player base of major poker sites.
