The 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona is primed to be a monster and PokerStars is giving away qualifier tickets for free on Discord.

Launched two months ago, PokerStars’ Discord channel is a new way for the poker site to interact with its community.

The launch was very successful and the channel already boosts a healthy bustling list of users so PokerStars is celebrating by running a freeroll that awards five tickets to the €215 Road to Barcelona ultra qualifier.

All players have to do is register for Discord and join the PokerStars channel and message StarsBot.

Discord a New Platform for Poker

PokerStars is the first major poker site that has ventured forth onto Discord and we wrote in more detail about the service on our Positively Nerd Street blog.

Jaime Staples

Discord was traditionally used by gamers as a way to host communities. The service works almost like a private forum, with instant messaging, but it also has VOIP capabilities as well.

The PokerStars channel on Discord currently has about 12 text channels with categories like #promotions, #ama_answers, #news_and_announcements and #paddedtiltroom.

Jaime Staples, Chris Moneymaker and PokerStars VP of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser have all done AMAs, which are still accessible.

You can find more information about exactly how to qualify for the Barcelona freeroll by logging on to Discord and navigating the feed.

Registration for the PokerStars Discord Barcelona freeroll ends on June 30 so you’ll want to jump on this one ASAP.

Massive PokerStars Championship Barcelona Set for August

Spain has always been a popular spot for poker but in the last few years attendance at Barcelona events in particular has exploded.

Sebastian Malec becomes a millionaire.

Last year Sebastian Malec outlasted 1,785 entries in the final European Poker Tour Main Event held in Barcelona to take down a staggering €1.1m. It was the biggest Main Event in the history of the European Poker Tour.

Barcelona was also home to some of the biggest Super High Roller events ever hosted on the EPT.

This year the PokerStars Championship is set to debut in the city and it could be bigger than ever.

The 2017 PokerStars Championship in Barcelona will run from Aug. 15-27 with 10 different events including a €4m-GTD National Championship and the €7m-GTD Main Event.

PokerStars currently offers a variety of ways to qualify for the massive festival including Spin & Go’s, Daily Cash Challenges and more but arguably the best way to get in is the Ultra Satellites, which award 50 seats each.

The Discord freeroll will award five seats into an Ultra Satellite. Snag a seat in the Ultra Satellite and you could be on your way to winning €1m+ in Barcelona.

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a friendly face, a gentle pat on the back and $25,000 in premium alcohol to ease those afternoon poker news sorrows.

Want to see something featured in a future 3-Bet? Just tell us about it in the comments.

Today in the 3-Bet we find Phil's bestie help drown his sorrows, Chino Rheem chases WSOP gold and Eugene Katchalov embraces his bustout sadness.

1) Send for Chamath, Absinthe

As we've said millions of times the World Series of Poker just doesn't feel like the World Series of Poker without a Phil Hellmuth bracelet run.

Chamath: Always a sympathetic ear.

Yes, he has 14 already and they give out 74 a year now so they're not all that rare.

But it's what Phil's career is more or less defined by (along with his 123 WSOP cashes) and, when he does get to final table, there is an undeniable buzz in the air.

We thought we were on the brink of another of those moments yesterday when Phil took the chip lead into the final 14 of the $10k Stud Hi-Lo Championship.

Sadly, as Phil put it: "bad runouts, misplayed one hand" and that was that. Out in ninth before the official final table even.

So while Chris Vitch celebrated his 2nd bracelet as the eventual winner, Phil and his "bestie," former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya, drowned their sorrows in some (we imagine) very expensive wine and the absinthe cart:

Massive disappointment: PAIN! Chip leader 14 left, finished 9th (not even an official final table!). Had bad run outs, misplayed one hand

Damn it!! Played great...Sigh...But happy best friend @Chamath flew in!! #PHNiceLife #POSITIVITY https://t.co/XdhCtEynag

At Sage Restaurant @AriaLV, the Absinthe Cart. @chamath pic.twitter.com/UZ44h2MiWx

There are still 25+ events to go so we may see another yet but the window is definitely closing on bracelet #15 for 2015. Here's hoping it's not too late.

2) Chino in Position for Bracelet #1

As live poker players go there are few in the game who have proven themselves as much over the years as Chino Rheem.

3-Time WPT champ; 1st time WSOP bracelet winner?

Not only a former November Niner (he finished 7th in 2008) Rheem has over $8.7m (!) in career live earnings along with 3 WPT titles, 2 APT titles and heaps of deep WSOP scores.

He's had his issues with paying back debts, for sure. But he's undeniably one of the best pound-for-pound poker players in the world.

Despite that impressive 13-year+ career in live poker he's yet to taste WSOP gold, though, with a 4th in the $10k PLO in 2014 his most recent near-miss.

Will that change today when he takes the chip lead into the final 19 in the $3k PLO 6-Max?

Hard to say, but with short-stacked vets Jeff Madsen and Roberto Romanello the only 'big' names standing in his way, it might be his time.

Follow along with the WSOP Live Updates and tune in for the final table live stream on the PokerGO app as per usual.

3) What's in the Fridge?

Former PokerStars pro Eugene Katchalov's unfit, unhealthy days are far behind him but that doesn't mean he still doesn't look to food to ease the soul-aching pain of a WSOP bustout:

Sad, post-bustout selfie on the way to my room. Time to find something yummy in the fridge. #WSOP2017 pic.twitter.com/ujOXKitOiG

He may have only gorged on some kale chips and a protein shake but we still empathize with him and everyone feeling the burn of a WSOP bustout.

What do you do to console yourself after a tough beat/bustout? Let us know in the comments.

So I am playing in the Unibet UK Poker Tour in Brighton a few months back.

It's Day 1A and I am playing well, building up a head of steam. I move tables and find myself to the direct right of Unibet Poker Ambassador Espen Uhlen Jørstad.

I had never met him. I knew he didn't know who I was. But I knew him from the press release announcing his partnership with the Swedish online poker room.

He instantly made me feel at ease at the table. He talked to me about life and asked me plenty of questions. It wasn't long before I lost concentration altogether and started playing like a total muppet because I was more interested in Espen than the game.

And then I wondered: Was he just being polite or was it a strategic ploy to learn if I knew what I was doing? I asked him, and this is what he had to say.

Espen Uhlen Jørstad: "It wasn’t strategic (laughs). I apologize if I put you off your game. I also miss out on information because I talk a lot, so it works both ways.

"It’s the same with giving away information. I might be receiving information from you, but I am also giving you information by being honest and authentic about my role with Unibet, for example.”

Confidence in spades. (Photo: Unibet)

LD: You were very welcoming. How much of that is part of being an ambassador for Unibet?

EUJ: Not at all! I was like that before I got the role. I have always been very communicative at a poker table.

LD: Why aren't more people talking to gain an edge?

EUJ: Poker is in decline and if everyone is going to sit there in their headphones, hoodies and glasses then the decline will continue because it makes poker less fun.

I feel many of the pros sit down and grind like it's their job. I feel like they are missing out on a big part of making their job enjoyable.

LD: I thought you were clean cut, smartly dressed, handsome. Then I read on your blog that you were once a 'fat slob' addicted to World of Warcraft. How did that happen?

EUJ: I would play video games as a kid as my way of escaping reality I think. I was 14-years old, fat, unattractive, socially awkward - not the most popular kid in the school yard. At that age being accepted by the cool kids was the only thing that mattered.

I have learned that it's common for people to find an escape when they are having troubles in life. I am happy, at least, that my escape was 15-hour shifts in the Warcraft universe rather than abusing drugs or alcohol.

You might think I am a confident speaker when you meet me in person today but there is a part of me that is still that fat, anxious, shy kid. I am constantly working on it though!

LD: I found you to be very open and confident at the poker table but less so away from the tables. Why is that?

EUJ: When I was a kid the only time I was confident was at LAN parties because my only real skill in life was video games. When I was there, I felt respected. But outside the LAN parties I wasn't confident at all.

I guess this is somewhat relatable to poker settings today, although luckily I don't feel my only asset in life now is my poker capabilities.

"When I was a kid the only time I was confident was at LAN parties."

LD: How does a 'fat anxious slob' who is addicted to Warcraft become the confident Unibet Ambassador I see today?

EUJ: It was a tough process, for sure. A lot changed when I went into the army at 18. It forced me to be around a lot of people and socially interact with strangers.

I also lost a lot of weight (18 kilos), and that gave me some confidence. I also benefited from the structure and discipline you attain in the army.

LD: Why did you go into the army? 

EUJ: It was entirely random. I wasn't doing much at that time. I had dropped out of school; I was playing a lot of Warcraft and just being a slob.

They called me and asked me if I wanted to join. I had a feeling that it would be good for me, so I did.

LD: Who called you?

EUJ: It was some communication guy from the army. They didn't have enough people in the air force in Northern Norway at the time, so they called to ask if I would be willing to step in.

At first I thought it was very unprofessional the way they called me. It was just like 'Hey, can you come join the army for a year? You'll be starting in 10 days.'

Parties a lot different these days.

I figured it was some troll from the Internet, and my friends were telling me to forget about it, but it turned out to be a real offer. Most people in that troop were 21-22 years old because we were handling some fairly techy computer systems for aerial missiles.

We were six or so 18-year-olds that got called in as step-ins and we naturally got nicknamed ‘the kids.'

LD: Didn’t you worry about … dying?

EUJ: It was one year of service. They weren’t exactly going to send me to Afghanistan. Most likely thing to kill me up there was the biting cold.

LD: What did you do when you came out?

EUJ: I returned to being a slob. I moved to a bigger city in Norway. I started playing more poker but I wasn't taking it very seriously. I didn’t know what I wanted out of life.

I had no sense of values. I was young, immature, and all I cared about was doing what I wanted. I had no ambition or goals.

I spent a lot of time hitting the gym, attending tanning salons, worrying about my hair, concerned about what I looked like and what people thought of me. I felt I had to be something I wasn’t.

I also still played a lot of video games and I partied a lot. I wasn't heading in a good direction in life.

LD: Didn’t you also work in a brewery? 

EUJ: Yes, it was after Black Friday. I didn't quit poker. I kept playing - not every month - but occasionally as a side income. I found myself getting tired of playing poker.

I went from a person who read all the books, watched all the strategy videos, all of the World Series and World Poker Tour coverage every year, to someone who bum-hunted heads-up No-Limit to provide myself with extra income. I was tired of the game and didn't care about it at that point.

I decided to go back to school. I had pressure from family. They didn't exactly love me playing poker, partying and going nowhere. The last time I went to school my grades sucked, I was skipping classes all of the time.

"World of Warcraft is one hell of a drug" (Photo: Espen Uhlen Jørstad)

World of Warcraft is one hell of a drug and I blame Blizzard for my lack of attendance in school.

I was going heavy on that for many years and my education suffered. It wasn't right for me. I decided to do school right this time. I go hard when I want to do something. I attended all of my classes and my grades went from C's and D's to mainly A's with some B's.

I realized I enjoyed math, chemistry and microbiology. I decided to stay in school for five more years and I eventually graduated with a Masters degree in brewing science, which is basically food science with a specialization in brewing beer.

I got into beer when I was doing my Bachelors in food science. I found I was not just interested in gulping down the stuff but also the chemistry, microbiology and sensory science behind making it. There are so many things that go into making a great pint of beer.

After finishing my Masters I got a job as a process technician in a Norwegian Brewery. I learned a ton and enjoyed working there, but the idea of working for someone else didn't appeal to me. I had an urge to create something on my own.

I worked there for a year before handing in my resignation. I booked flight tickets and flew to Budapest with my then girlfriend to start a craft beer brewing business over there. I had a partner in the project and the plan was to play poker on the side to finance the beer project.

Then a few things happened. Poker was going really well and I started enjoying the game again. Then I got offered a deal with Unibet and I couldn't pass it up. In the end we decided to put the beer project on hold.

I left Budapest and headed to Malta to focus on poker, Twitch and the Unibet ambassadorship. That was February 2017.

LD: I know that your father had his problems with alcohol and died quite young. The last place I thought you would have ended up is in a brewery.

EUJ: Yes, my father was 42 when he passed away. He suffered a lot with drug and alcohol problems, which made it tough to maintain a healthy and 'normal' father-son relationship.

He was in prison for much of my childhood so I didn't spend much time with him in my early years. We didn't really have a real relationship until my early to late teens I would say.

Microbrewing a different ballgame.

He was a very bright man and always amazingly kind to me. Unfortunately, though, his addictions got the best of him and his health declined as such.

I thought about my father when I got the brewery job. History dictates that I should distance myself from, or at least be careful of that stuff.

Microbreweries and the whole craft beer culture for me is not about drinking heaps of beer and getting drunk though. It's about the culture itself, the people, and the experience. Exploring different flavors, aromas and sensations; not buying 12 Heineken and getting pissed.

LD: Does your experience with your father make you think about how you will one day turn out when you become a parent?

EUJ: To be honest I'm not sure that I want to be a parent. I have been thinking about this a lot because I am 29 now and people my age either have a kid, are thinking about it, or they are getting married and growing up.

I just ended a relationship basically because I didn't want all those things. If I don't want them now, then perhaps that is not the path for me. It might sound sad and weird for people, but for me it's not really a thing I am seeking.

LD: It doesn’t seem weird to me. Society turned their back on you when you were a kid, so I guess it makes sense not to want to conform to societal expectations. 

EUJ: It seems like you've hit the nail on the head. I don’t want to be like everyone else. I didn’t fit in at the beginning and now I don’t want to fit in. Maybe there is a bit of ‘fuck you’ about me.

LD: Going back to the time you left to start your craft beer store in Budapest. You said your poker game improved. Why? 

EUJ: I wasn't doing anything different although I was playing more. I had the same win-rate when I was working as well; only I wasn't playing a lot.

I started streaming on Twitch after watching video game streams for a long time: Dota 2, Hearthstone and poker streams … I loved watching Tonkaaaap, for example. I thought it looked fun and so I started to stream myself.

"Streaming gave me the motivation to grind again"

In the beginning I was nervous, wondering 'what if no one liked it, what if no one bothered to tune in?' But it didn't take that long to get into a rhythm and people seemed to like it.

I remember seeing the viewer count growing week by week. The first month of streaming I played more poker volume than ever before because streaming was so much fun.

Streaming gave me the motivation to grind again and I had a reason to study because I didn't want to look like a fool on the stream.

LD: For someone who suffered from social anxiety as a kid, streaming your poker on Twitch seems like an odd choice. Do you sometimes get confused as to who you are?

EUJ: Yes, every day I struggle to find myself. Before I did Twitch I didn't do any of the social media stuff. Since I began Twitch I've begun doing some VLOG work for Unibet.

You can imagine how uncomfortable I will be walking around with a selfie stick. I get uncomfortable having my photo taken. It's horrible walking around with it but I am going to dive into it headlong. I see it as an opportunity to grow, not a struggle.

I would be super happy if I could be super comfortable and confident in every social situation. That would be nice. It takes a lot of work getting there, especially when you come from a socially awkward background.

"I never thought it would happen, but they watched it, liked it, and here we are."

But I'm working on a lot of the things I think will lead to that goal.

LD: How much of what we see is Espen Uhlen Jorstad the person, and Espen Uhlen Jorstad the brand?

EUJ: That's a tough one. My brand is something I will discover as I am going along. Being on Twitch and creating a VLOG … I guess I need to think about it. Right now I am into eating healthily, working out, doing yoga, meditation and all that stuff.

I am confident that the stuff you do away from the tables is going to be so important. Everyone is getting so good at the fundamentals of the game so finding small edges in other areas is paramount if you want to survive.

So if you can do meditation and get into a better mental state at the table, that's going to be important. So that's the line of branding I would like to take.

LD: How did the Unibet deal happen?

EUJ: I contacted Unibet myself as I was quitting my brewery job in Norway. I told them I was starting a Twitch stream and was playing 100% of my volume on Unibet.

I told them they could check out the stream and let me know if they would like to work together in the future. I never thought it would happen, but they watched it, liked it, and here we are.

------

You can catch Espen Uhlen Jorstad playing €2/4 & €4/8 cash games, and the occasional tournament, on his Unibet Twitch stream. Watch his first vlog below:

The second annual Caribbean Poker Party takes place in Punta Cana this November but in the meantime partypoker is giving its players a crack at $1.3m in leaderboard prizes.

The Caribbean Poker Party leaderboards start today and run until Aug. 26 with three different stakes levels including low, medium and high.

Over the course of the promotion partypoker will dole out $1.3m including eight $10,000 Caribbean Poker Party packages every week.

Points for the leaderboard can be earned in all Power Series tournaments, with the exception of multi-phase and tourneys with non-cash prizes.

2017 CPP Features $6m GTD

The second annual Caribbean Poker Party promises to build on the impressive showing in Punta Cana last year that saw Troy Quenneville take down $400,000.

Troy Quenneville cashed in on the CPP.

This year the $5,300 buy-in Main Event will offer a guaranteed prize pool of $5m and there will also be a $1,000 side event with a $1m guarantee.

The 2017 CPP will take place Nov. 18-25 at the five-star Melia Caribe Tropical in Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic.

The $10k CPP leaderboard packages will be divvied up with one package going to the low leaderboard winner, two to the medium and five to the high leaderboard every week.

If you miss out on the top prize in the CPP leaderboard but still manage to finish in the top 50 you’ll get a prize ranging from a $109 semi-final ticket to a $1,050 direct qualifier ticket.

Outside of the CPP leaderboard there are numerous satellites for the massive live event currently running on partypoker.

Remember: Opt-in for Rake Back

There are plenty of reasons to play on partypoker right now but perhaps the most appealing is the newly announced rake back.

partypoker ambassador Sam Trickett.

partypoker revamped its loyalty program in May to offer a simple cash back structure.

It’s one of the most straightforward loyalty programs offered by an online poker site and you can earn up to 40% rake back every week.

All you have to do is play real money poker on partypoker and you’ll start earning towards getting some cash back.

Players earn at the rate of one point per every $1 they contribute to cash game rake or tournament fees. Earn a minimum of 25 points and you’ll start to receive cash back to your partypoker account.

Perhaps the most important party of the loyalty program, however, is remember to opt-in.

Only those who opt-in for rake back every week will be eligible to earn cash back.

To learn more or start earning cash back for yourself you can head over to our partypoker review.

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a soaring violin, a thunderous kettle drum and a delicate pizzicato perfectly in tune for the afternoon poker news symphony.

Got a hot tip for a future 3-Bet? Tweet us @PokerListings or tell us in the comments.

Today in the 3-Bet we find a quietly ascendance for Jesus Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu narrows down his stakees and the World Poker Tour turns the page with style.

1) Jesus Rises Up POY Ranks

The 2017 WSOP has been a relatively quiet one for Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - at least as far as physical and verbal threats go.

Ferguson cashing plenty in 2017.

Returning to the Rio to much disdain (and justified anger) in 2016, Ferguson has put in a very full schedule so far this summer with, comparatively, little of the vitriol that was directed at him last year.

The calm has done him well, apparently, as he's racked up a pretty dazzling 12 cashes already.

While most have been of the min-cash variety (his earnings so far are only around $60k) he's definitely showing his well-rounded poker skills haven't left him.

A 12th in the $10k Stud Hi-Lo Championship led into another deep run in the $10k PLO Hi-Lo yesterday where he's still among the final 15.

The breadth of his cashes has also put him in 8th in the WSOP Player of the Year race just 60 or so points behind current leader Mike Leah.

If he happens to hit something big - like that $10k PLO and its $500k up top - and then take over the POY lead ... well, we might see some of that vitriol stirred up again. As always follow along with the live updates on WSOP.com and watch the live streams on the PokerGO app.

2) Finalists Culled for Negreanu Main Event Stake

As anyone who's followed Daniel Negreanu's career knows, he's a generous and charitable guy off the felt and his annual charity tournament for St. Jude's Hospital is just one example.

Generous at heart.

Another example? He's in the process of staking 1 player in the 2017 WSOP Main Event simply for submitting videos explaining why they deserve one.

A school teacher named Tanya was the first lucky finalist named yesterday and one more will be picked today from another group of 3 semi-finalists. 

Watch the new vids (and vote for your favorite) in Daniel's daily Vlog below:

3) WPT Goes Orchestral for New Intro

With the departure of Mike Sexton for the partypoker Chairmanship, the World Poker Tour is entering a new chapter this year for the first time in 15 years.

What better way to turn the page than with a new TV show intro, yeah? Watch the new cut below along with a cool behind-the-scenes look at how it was made.

Who knew the World Poker Tour composes its own music>

The call went out to poker players around the world and slowly but surely players have begun to take sides in 888poker’s special 8-Team promotion for the 2017 WSOP Main Event.

Online player ‘anteen’ will join 888poker ambassadors Sofia Lövgren and Martin Jacobson on Team Sweden.

Meanwhile ‘tcavallin’ will rep Canada alongside 888poker’s Parker “TonkaaaaP” Talbot and Griffin Benger.

Finally “KYSERBILLS” will fly the Union Jack with Chris Moorman and William Kassouf in Las Vegas.

We’re still awaiting the announcements for Team Germany and Team Brazil to complete their respective three-player squads.

Free $12,500 2018 Main Event Package

Online players on 888poker have been attempting to qualify for the 8-team over the last couple months on the site’s exclusive WSOP satellites. Now that the qualifiers have come to an end it’s only a matter of time before the final two online qualifiers are named.

Who will join Dominik?

Every player who plays the 2017 WSOP Main Event on one of the three-person 8-Team squads will have the added benefit of getting advice from both the 888poker ambassador and official wingman for their team.

In addition the qualifier who’s on the team that performs the best in the Main Event will receive a $10,000 seat into the 2018 WSOP Main Event along with travel expenses, accommodations and more.

Dominik Nitsche and footballer Mario Basler will act as the ambassadors for Team Germany in the 8-team promo while Bruno Politano and footballer Danilson will represent Team Brazil.

Every online qualifier that made it onto an 8-team squad received a $12,500 package into the Main Event that covers accommodation and travel expenses.

Aiming for a $10m First-Place Prize

Of course if any 888poker qualifier is able to outright win the 2017 WSOP Main Event they get the biggest perk of all.

An extra $2m would have been cool.

888poker will add a bonus payout of whatever it takes to get the top prize to $10m.

If you extrapolate Qui Nguyen’s $8m win in the Main Event last year that means 888poker would throw in a bonus $2m.

The time for WSOP qualifying may be over but anyone on the site looking to qualify for a fun live tournament experience may want to look into the upcoming 888Live festival in London, which is set to take place July 27-30, just after the Main Event.

888poker's live event in Barcelona in May smashed its guarantee so there's a good chance London will be a big one.

Satellites are already running on 888poker and you can learn more or sign up for an account (and $888 bonus) on our review page.

For Maurice Hawkins playing poker professionally started with a football-career ending injury sustained while chasing an armed robber out of his house.

He was attending university on a scholarship and after moving home to Daytona Beach in Florida following the injury, he started playing live poker.

Since then he's racked up over $2.6 million in earnings, nine WSOP Circuit rings and an American Poker Award for Breakout Performance of 2016.

But it all started one day after football practice.

“Basically I came home, hamstrings were kind of tight after a six-hour day at practice,” Hawkins explained while on a break from the final two tables of the $1,500 Monster Stack event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

6,716 players entered that tournament and the first place prize was just under $1.1 million.

“The football team was racing the track team and I made like $350. For some reason the track boys thought they could beat the football guys at 40-yard dashes and they were willing to put money on it.

“I'm a third-degree brown belt and my hands are licensed."

“So I got back to my room and I hear a knock on the door and my roommate answered the door. My friend had a girl there so we were just chilling and all I heard was a bunch of dishes rattling and stuff and they grab him and put him down and then yelled for me to come out.

“I'm a third-degree brown belt and my hands are licensed so I was hesitant to go out there. I really don't want to get into an altercation with someone with a gun no matter who they are. I looked through the door and they got a gun to the back of my roommates head. I tell the girl to shut up and go out the window.

“I open the door a bit and the guy with the gun tries to come through the door and he's got the gun in front of him so I slam the door on him and do a move and hit him in his esophagus and break his right knee.

“Now the gun's on the ground, my roommate grabs the gun, and the other attacker runs. I chase the guy and end up catching him but tore both my hamstrings in the process of running after him.

“I ripped them right before I grabbed him and then the cops came. Originally they were trying to get me for assault but after they talked to my roommate and saw his injuries they figured out what had happened.

“I ended up leaving that college and going home for a month to Daytona Beach and I started playing poker. That was the start of it all.”

More Good from Bad

Hawkins says he was successful playing poker in Florida. He played sit and gos and when the state changed the laws limiting cash-game buy-ins, he learned how to win at that too.

He said he had run his bankroll up to three or four hundred thousand dollars and he was in a long-term relationship.

"There were times when I didn't know where the money was going to come from.”

But after buying a house he went on a big downswing and lost it all. His girlfriend left him. Hawkins said it was because of the money.

“So I was in Vegas, really sad about my ex leaving me and I had been on a downswing for like a year and a half. I think it was in 2007 or 2008,” he said.

“During that period, there were times when I really didn't know where the money was going to come from.”

Hawkins continued playing poker and not long after, met another woman. He said that starting the day after he met her he won back-to-back tournaments at the Venetian.

Five months later they were married. The hard times continued but his wife stuck with him.

“There was a time I couldn't get in tournaments for like three months so we had to sleep on an air mattress at my friend's house,” remembered Hawkins.

“One day the guys were in the other room and I told them my net worth was a million dollars because I could win a million at any moment.

“They all laughed at me and I had to go back to the air mattress with my girl and my kids and my dog.

I told my wife I was going to make it and she believed in me.

“That December I won a tournament for like $20,000, we moved into an apartment and we just built from there.”

Hawkins Addresses Criticism

If you search Maurice Hawkins online you'll find a number of reports of his behavior at the table and a lot of it's negative.

“Sometimes I'm abrasive but it is what it is. I'm still from St. Louis you know.”

He's repeatedly been accused of being disrespectful to other players and when we asked him about it he didn't shy away from the question.

“Gary Payton was the glove, the best defensive man alive,” said Hawkins.

“You meet him on the court he D'd you up and talked you down. Michael Jordan wasn't friendly. Charles Barkley wasn't friendly.

“It's part of the game. I'm in attack mode. When we're gambling I'm in attack mode so I'm going to do anything I can.

“I approach this like it's a game. A lot of people out here approach it like it's their life. When you're at the table, everyone's in the game and it's not the same as when you're away from the table.

“I am passionate and I do get fired up in the moment so it is a part of me but I don't want to offend people. I think if you knew me away from the table you'd know I'm a good dude.

Hawkins also has to be aware that in poker, the cameras are often pointed at the person making the most noise.

“Sometimes I'm abrasive but it is what it is. I'm still from St. Louis city you know.”

JJ Volpe's story takes us from a 22-year-old hustling poker on his first day in the Vietnam War to 34 years spent competing at the World Series of Poker.

Volpe's played poker professionally since 1981, in Las Vegas for 11 years and the rest in California, mostly at the Commerce Casino.

He's semi-retired now. He lives in Arizona where he bought some land.

The first entry on his Hendon Mob results page is a 1st-place finish in the 1984 Grand Prix of Poker at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas.

Now, almost three and a half decades later he's still playing at the WSOP. We caught him before the start of the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event.

Funnily enough, it was Stud they were playing in an officer's tent all those years ago in Vietnam.

PokerListings.com: How is poker different now compared to when you started in the 1980s?

JJ Volpe: Well, technically I'm an outspoken guy. I'm a Vietnam veteran and I'm an outspoken guy. The new guys, frankly, drink the Kool-Aid.

PL.com: What does the Kool-Aid represent here?

JJ: Well, if you create waves around here, they don't appreciate it. Don't make any waves, just be quiet.

PL.com: Is that your approach to the game?

JJ: No. I'm what you might call an asskicker so I don't like to take bull from anyone. Let's put it that way.

PL.com: What else bothers you about people today?

JJ: You know what really aggravates me? Nobody even watches the game anymore. They just watch their cell phones and their tablets.

"Then a goddamn mortar hits right outside the tent."

Concentration and focus is the biggest thing in poker and nowadays you sit at a table with nine players, at least six of them are on their phones.

PL.com: You mentioned you served in Vietnam. Did you play poker over there?

JJ: There were big games in Vietnam. I was 22 years old. I went right after college. My first trip up country I went in the officer's tent and there was a poker game on a bumper pool table.

There was all kinds of money on the table: Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, American, IOUs. I didn't know what any of it meant. It was my first time up country. They were all sergeants and high-ups and they were playing Stud and I got in the game.

I won the first four hands in a row and then I picked up some garbage hands and thought to myself that they wouldn't think a young guy like me would be bluffing in that game so I put some bluffs out.

Long story short, I won the first seven hands I played.

I've got so many different currencies I don't even know how much it is, and also I don't have enough room for it because we're playing on this bumper pool table.

This game was my first day up country and it's now pushing like 4am and a goddamn mortar hits right outside the tent. I grab my weapon and jump in the bunker. By this time the entire tent has collapsed.

Afterwards we raise the tent and go back in. All the money was gone.

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a sore tummy and a faint headache but the intestinal fortitude to tough it out in the dog-eat-dog afternoon poker news war.

Have something you'd like to see featured in a future 3-Bet? Tell us in the comments.

Today in the 3-Bet we find Brian Yoon showing he's a real poker monster, Jason Mercier fights on and the WSOP is alive with great poker stories.

1) Yoon Goes 3x, Wins $1m

27-year-old Californian Brian Yoon isn't necessarily the first name you think of when you start bandying about multiple WSOP bracelet winners.

Yoon strikes again.

It's about time he entered the conversation, though.

Yoon steamrolled to his third career WSOP bracelet yesterday and a monstrous $1,094,349 payout in the 2017 WSOP Monster Stack event.

He knocked out the final 4 players to seal the deal, too, and give himself yet another win over a massive tournament field.

Yoon's previous two bracelet wins? The $1,111 Little One for One Drop in 2013 for $663,727 and the $5k NL 8-Handed event in 2014 for $633,341.

That's over $2.4m in WSOP earnings alone (of $4.2m total live). 

Without, you know, beating the monster metaphor to death ... that's a 'monster' of a poker resume. Congrats to him. Enjoy that moniez!

2) Mercier in Final 23 of $1,500 NL

It's safe to say, after last year's 2-bracelet, 11-cash, POY winning WSOP, Jason Mercier was going to have a tough time matching it in 2017. So far, that's been the case.

No quit in JMerc.

While Mercier has 5 cashes (and one FT) for about $100k total - a massively successful summer for 98% of the poker world - it likely hasn't quite measured up to the high expectations he puts on himself every summer.

Mercier is the epitome of a grinder, though, and equally likely to put three final tables in the bag this week. And that hot streak could start today as he's in the final 23 to start Day 3 of Event #52, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.

With 457k in chips Mercier's is 9th heading in but a couple of nice pots early and he could seize control. The fact he's even in a $1,500 is proof Mercier is in grind mode and willing to do the work for bracelet #6.

Will it happen today? Tune in to the final table live stream on the PokerGO app to find out.

3) Indestructible Grumpa

Nine strokes. 11 heart attacks. 2 amputations.

JJ Volpe just one of amazing WSOP stories.

We've heard some incredible poker stories over the course of our 12 years at the World Series of Poker but every year we're still surprised by how many more are out there to find.

While we met our own, battle-hardened survivor with a lifelong relationship with poker, ESPN's Bernard Lee told the story of 69-year old poker player Warren "Grumpa" Griffith.

We won't give away all the twists and turns (although the intro above speaks to a few of them) but suffice to say it's an amazing story and a life intertwined with poker in ways most of us can't imagine.

Go there and give it a read asap.

What's the most amazing story you've heard at the World Series of Poker? Let us know in the comments below!

27-year-old Rainer Kempe has racked up over $10 million playing live poker tournaments ... and even he's mystified by what his friend Fedor Holz has been able to pull off.

Kempe has solid tournament results dating back to 2011 but he caught everyone's attention last summer when he won the $300,000 buy-in Aria Super High Roller Bowl.

He beat Holz heads-up to win that event, earning himself $5 million. At that point Holz had been on the biggest heater perhaps in poker history, having earned roughly $10.5 million in the six months previous.

Holz continued the run with a win in the $111k One Drop High Roller for just under $5 million a couple weeks later.

“It's so tough to say,” said Kempe when asked about how much of Holz's success is skill and how much is luck.

“I would always say it's not possible to have that kind of edge but Fedor leaves me guessing. Maybe he does. He's clearly been crushing it forever and ever.

“I think we don't really understand variance too well even though a lot of people have thought about it in poker for a long time.”

Most recently Holz won two $50k High Roller events at the Aria on two consecutive days for a combined $750,000. His live earnings now total $22.9 million.

“Fedor really pushes the limits of what I thought was possible,” Kempe said, shaking his head.

Kempe's Gradual Grind to the Top

Kempe started playing poker casually while he was attending college in Potsdam. He was studying business administration but he says now that his heart wasn't 100% in it.

"Back then I was happy to finish the night with five or ten euros."

Looking back, Kempe says at the time he had no idea there would ever even be such a thing as Super High Roller poker tournaments, let alone that he'd be playing in them and winning millions.

“Back then I was happy to finish the night with five or ten euros,” he said.

Kempe eventually moved to the UK and started taking live poker more seriously. He says he had success right away at low stakes and gradually moved his way up.

Now he says he's able to play the highest-stakes tournaments offered anywhere in the world.

"I grinded up gradually so it doesn't strike me as that surprising in a way,” Kempe said of his success and the fact that he's playing such astronomical stakes.

“I don't want to say I expected it and I definitely don't want to say I automatically deserve it because you have to get so lucky. But at the same time, I don't feel like it came overnight.”

German Staking Economy Better Than Other Countries

Kempe is part of a group of German players that have stormed the high roller tournament scene and, according to him, it has to do more with the staking economy in Germany than the sheer skill of the country's players.

“There are so many talented German players but one thing is that it's much easier to sell action for high buy-in tournaments in Germany compared to Spain or Russia for example,” explained Kempe.

“I feel like other countries have an equal number of talented players but they aren't able to take the same shots.”

“I've really been breathing it in, all of it.”

Kempe points at the long history of high-stakes backers in Germany as one reason Germans have been so dominant.

“There's been a market pretty much from the very beginning when the high rollers were super soft,” he said.

“There were investors who bought action and were able to build their roll the same way players did. And then when the edges got thinner, they were able to gamble on smaller edges.”

Super High Roller Economy “Very Solid”

Kempe also says the Super High Roller economy is very healthy and that he doesn't expect things to change anytime soon.

"I think the super high roller economy is very solid,” he said. “Those events are definitely getting harder but I don't think that will change things.

“If the businessmen in the $100ks go on a downswing in poker it's not going to affect their life. They're going to keep playing as long as they enjoy it.

“And the regs, even though they might not make a lot of money, they're still profitable.”

Kempe is referring to the fact that most of the poker pros playing Super High Rollers sell a large part of their action. Individual players selling a lot of action is another way the super high roller scene is protected.

“I've really been breathing it in, all of it,” Kempe said of his experience in the poker world. “There are Super High Rollers all over the world and I expect it to stay that way for now.”

Universally accessed, border-free online poker - at least in Europe - is showing signs of resurgence from its ashes.

At least that's the impression left after an announcement today from French gaming regulator ARJEL.

On July 6 the Regulatory Authorities of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal will sign an agreement for the shared liquidity of online poker.

As communicated by the General Directorate of Game Management:

"This agreement will lay the foundations for cooperation between the signatory authorities in such a framework and will be followed by developments within each jurisdiction that are necessary in order to make liquidity possible for the game of poker. "

After years of being in walled off, segregated markets, this is great news for French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese poker players and means the opening of internet frontiers for players.

It also likely means a surge in new poker offerings from licensed online rooms to bring in new recreational players and expand the player pool even further.

Regulators make it happen.

In the Works Since Last May

The agreement between Spain, France, Italy and Portugal didn't emerged from nowhere.

Last May regulators from Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom held a meeting in Lisbon where several aspects of administrative cooperation between the parties were discussed.

Issues such as money laundering and terrorist financing, new games, virtual currencies, cross border enforcement and prevention of fraud were discussed.

Shortly after the DGOJ held a meeting with the Danish Regulatory Authority (Spillemyndigheden), whose legislation is very similar to the Spanish one, and where also conversations of future were held.

UK, Germany Not Included for Now

While the inclusion of major poker playing populations like the UK, Germany and Scandinavia would be a dream it will be the countries of "Southern Europe" that take the first step on July 6 in Rome.

Adding UK would be nice, too.

France, Spain, Italy and Portugal will give their online players the opportunity to do something they have advocated for for years: to play amongst each other.

The expanded player pool will likely inspire poker rooms like PokerStars, PartyPoker and 888poker to consider organizing tournaments that take into account the overall pool of players from all four countries (although some operators are not yet licensed in some countries, like 888poker in Portugal).

It's also well known that the #1 French poker operator, Winamax, is preparing its entry into Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Details of the implementation are still to be sorted but the framework for cooperation should be in place the begin the process starting as early as next week.

w/ files from Alvaro Quiros.

Mohsin Charania and Max Silver officially lost their membership to the “best player with no WSOP bracelet” club last night in Las Vegas.

Silver was the first one to strike gold as he outlasted 256 runners in the $3k Limit Hold’em 6-Max event to win $172k.

Charania followed that up by topping a big $1,500 NLHE event that attracted 1,580 players. He took down $364k for his efforts.

Prior to last night both players had $3m+ in earnings but neither had ever won a WSOP bracelet.

Silver Dominates Final Table

Max Silver, who was born in London but now resides in Dublin, has become renowned for making deep runs at the WSOP and finally has a bracelet to go with his impressive poker resume.

Max Silver

Silver finished 33rd in last year's Main Event and also placed eighth in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event.

He was dominant last night and held the chip lead for the vast majority of play, only sinking down to even with the rest of the players briefly during three-handed play.

In the end Silver out-dueled Bay Area pro Guowei “Tommy” Zhang. Zhang earned $106k for finishing runner up.

The final table actually wrapped early last night, which allowed Silver to make a flight back to Dublin that he had previously booked. He’ll return to the WSOP in a few days, however.

Here’s a look at the complete payouts for the final table of Event 53: $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-max:

1st: Max Silver, $172,645
2nd: Guowei Zhang, $106,694
3rd: Mickey Craft, $69,789
4th: Lena Wang, $46,871
5th: Ayman Qutami, $32,345
6th: Georgios Kapalas, $22,952

Charania Beats Stacked $1,500 Final Table

You don’t always see a large number of poker pros at the $1,500 NLHE final tables but Charania had his hands full last night.

The table featured businessman/poker pro Cary Katz, two-WSOP bracelet winner Andy Frankenberger, Russian pro Mikhail Rudoy and 2014 EPT Barcelona runner-up finisher Samuel Phillips.

Mohsin Charania

Luckily Charania had one thing the other competitors didn’t: A raucous crowd cheering him on.

"This happens when I'm just playing online on Tuesday, so I'm used to it. Wait until you see me get deep in like a $109 [online]. It's just chaos," said Charania in the winner interview with the WSOP.

"No, you get used to it and you learn to block it out and you know like you're kind of excited because you know that when you win a pot, everyone is going to cheer for you, so it's kind of nice.”

Charania had a tough position at the final table because he was on the direct left of talented pro Samuel Phillips.

It was Charania, however, that finally landed the knockout blow on Phillips when he snapped off a Phillips’ shove with K♦ 3♦ with A♦ 8♠.

From there Charania busted Brandon Ageloff to secure a nearly 3-1 heads-up chip lead against Cary Katz.

Katz was in a unique position at the final table because he owns the PokerGO streaming service that was broadcasting the event.

Unfortunately for Katz a comeback wasn’t in the cards as Charania found A♠ Q♣ to Katz’ K♣ Q♦ to close out the event.

Here’s a look at the final-table payouts for Event 52: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em:

1st: Mohsin Charania - $364,438
2nd: Cary Katz - $225,181
3rd: Brandon Ageloff - $161,844
4th: Andy Frankenberger - $117,611
5th: Mikhail Ruody - $86,424
6th: Samuel Phillips - $64,226
7th: Ian Steinman - $48,276
8th: Yanki Koppel - $36,708
9th: Milan Simko - $28,239

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.

Got a hot tip for a future 3-Bet? Tweet us @PokerListings or drop a note in the comments.

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 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:

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 at the link above.

An altercation caught on video between poker pros Mike Dentale and Jared Hamby ended with Dentale disqualified from a poker tournament at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

The video, posted on Hamby's Twitter account and since deleted, showed Dentale getting in Hamby's face and threatening to assault him.

Dentale and Hamby were seated at adjacent tables in the $2,000 buy-in event when the incident began.

Artur Rudziankov, a Czech poker player in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, was seated at Dentale's table and he said the problems started with the previous dealer.

“The dealer before the one seen in the video was super bad,” said Rudziankov. “He was making tons of mistakes. I was a little tilted myself.”

Dentale and the previous dealer had words but Rudziankov said it wasn't serious.

Then the next dealer sat down and before any cards were dealt, he and Dentale got into an argument.

“Mike is in seat nine so he collects 25 ante from himself, the guy in seat 8 and me,” explained Rudziankov.

Lizzy Harrison, Hamby's girlfriend and the person who filmed the video, was playing in the event and sitting at Dentale's table.

She says that the dealer had already pulled in the antes and Dentale splashed his big blind into the pile and reached in to remove it.

Either way, that's when things started to get heated.

“Then the dealer says in an angry voice to never do that and gets confrontational.”

Mike Dentale

Rudziankov says he told the dealer no one would touch the antes from then on and to just deal the cards, but the dealer refused to start the hand.

“Mike apparently said something to the dealer because he was tilted. I can't confirm or deny what he said because I was pretty stunned by the dealer's behavior towards us.”

Both Harrison and Rudziankov said that the dealer called the floor at this point.

The dealer claimed Mike had been berating him and using the f-word.

“I'm pretty sure I hadn't heard any f-words from Mike at this point,” said Rudziankov.

This is when the video begins, with Hamby standing up from his seat and calling out that he heard Dentale call the dealer an ass moments before.

The video showed Dentale jump out of his seat and walk around the table directly towards Hamby, saying, “What if I just punch you in the fucking face?”

Now Dentale and Hamby are chest to chest and there's a small physical altercation when Hamby puts his hand on Dentale's chest and Dentale swats it aside.

Dentale is yelling at Hamby to mind his own business and swearing loudly. At this point another woman starts loudly telling Dentale to stop because there are young girls present.

Hamby later tweeted that there was a dance competition in the convention center near the poker room and there were many young girls and their parents in the vicinity.

Following the altercation Dentale was disqualified from the tournament but did not receive any further ban.

Together Again at WSOP

One day after the incident both Hamby and Dentale were playing in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event at the World Series of Poker, separated from one another by about ten poker tables.

PokerListings.com spoke to both Hamby and Dentale and it turns out there was already bad blood between the two.

Dentale said he and Hamby have a history on Twitter.

“I don't like him,” said Dentale about Hamby. “He's a far-left liberal that always has to comment on how I am.”

"It's all on Twitter, politics shit. I have a lot of liberal friends and I don't give a shit. I'm not here to change anyone's mind.

"If I believe a certain way let me be. They're always commenting on it and what I should do and it's gotten to the point where there's bad blood.

"In this situation, he wasn't even at the table. He doesn't know the whole story. And now he's putting his two cents in and throwing me under the bus."

"I just lost it."

Hamby had a different take on how things played out.

"I saw what I perceived to be a small injustice happening right in front of me and I chipped in with what I had heard him say," said Hamby.

"This is a business environment and there are so many negative ramifications from that kind of behavior. It turns recreational players off, it makes dealers uncomfortable. There's nothing positive that comes from it.

"Now I feel like I'm caught up in this whole thing because I said six words, trying to correct something that happened right in front of me.

"And because I stood up for this small wrong I'm a target for all this harassment from people on Twitter."

There was a storm of tweets back and forth between Hamby and Dentale today with Dentale and others describing Hamby in very negative terms.

Dentale Defends Himself, Apologizes

According to Dentale he didn't swear or berate the dealer and Artur Rudziankov's story supports that.

Rudziankov said that up until the point when Hamby got involved, it was mainly the dealer who was out of line, not Dentale.

Dentale aologized for his behavior on Twitter.

But Dentale admits that after that point his behavior was inexcusable and goes on to try to explain it.

"I did threaten to punch him in the face. I'm guilty of that and there's no excuse for that," said Dentale.

"Really what frustrated me is that if Jared had just not interjected it would have been a normal argument and that would have been that.

"The video doesn't show everything leading up to it. It just shows the part where I get up and lose my head.

"I have a certain personality. I grew up on the streets, had a lot of fights. I have an emotional personality. So if you're someone who's constantly interjecting and annoying, it's like a relationship between a man and a woman.

“A man should never raise his hands towards a woman. All of a sudden they show a man who beat up his wife and gets arrested you think, 'What a piece of shit, throw away the key,' then all of a sudden they show all the stuff that led up to that, the emotional abuse, her berating him and putting him down. It doesn't give him the right but you say, 'Okay the guy snapped after all those years of abuse.'

"It never justifies it but all of a sudden it makes sense why the guy lost his mind. And that's almost the case with me. When you keep interjecting and getting in my business and stirring the pot with me, there's only so much I can take.

"If I could do it again I would just ignore him."

Following our interview, Dentale tweeted an apology. Hamby agreed to take down the video and squash it.

Recreational marijuana became legal in Nevada today but smoking pot at the World Series of Poker can still have serious consequences.

Weed's always been pretty common at the WSOP. Whether it's outside, in the hallways or at the tables, it's unusual to go a full day at the Rio Hotel and Casino without smelling it somewhere.

Now with marijuana available in Las Vegas for anyone of legal age, odds are we'll be smelling it even more.

But smoking and vaping weed at the World Series isn't the safest activity if you value being allowed on the Rio property.

Officially they have a zero-tolerance policy that involves having anyone using drugs on the premises arrested by the police and possibly banned from not just this property, but all Caesars properties.

It's happened before but considering the number of people discreetly partaking, it's not really that common.

Shane Schleger is a poker pro whose first WSOP cash was in 2005, a $131k score for making a final table in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.

Schleger says he's been smoking weed in varying amounts the entire time he's played at the WSOP.

“I've run the gamut of styles,” said Schleger.

“I’ve definitely done my normal wake-and-bake and play WSOP events over the years but that's not necessarily how I am geared right now.

Shane Schleger

“This current trip I've played four prelims and abstained until dinner break.”

Schleger's never had a problem with security but he said he has a friend that was caught with a vape pen at another Caesars property and banned from the World Series of Poker altogether.

Over the last 15 years there have been many stories of players getting kicked off properties all over the US for smoking pot, some while still playing in a tournament.

Schleger's position is that while it is clear the WSOP's parent company Caesars must have rules like a no-drugs policy, potentially being banned from setting foot inside the World Series of Poker is disproportionate to the offense.

Many poker players are earning a living at the WSOP, some people have medical marijuana prescriptions and others have traveled from around the world to play here.

The unspoken consensus, though, is that if you're discreet and respectful when you're smoking weed, chances are you'll be okay.

“I don’t look at the problem in terms of Smokers vs Caesars,” he explained.

“I'm not under any reasonable expectation that a huge corporation will condone drug use on its property. That's why I find the unspoken accommodation of this popular activity to be a reasonable middle ground.

“I think more people get barred from these properties for being drunk or unruly or challenging the authority of a security guard, which usually happens when someone is drunk.

“So on the spectrum of things you can do to piss off the guards, discreetly smoking some cannabis in a wide open desert seems less foolhardy than, say, walking around the Linq drunk and acting like an asshole.”

Don't Expect Weed in Casinos Anytime Soon

The current guidelines around marijuana being sold and consumed in casinos was outlined in a 2014 memo to gaming licensees written by Gaming Control Board member Terry Johnson and the board decided there would be no changes to those guidelines as a result of weed's eventual legalization by the State of Nevada.

A police vehicle parked outside the entrance to the WSOP.

The memo essentially said that since the possession and sale of marijuana are federal crimes, casinos wouldn't be allowed to invest or operate marijuana facilities regardless of changing state laws.

The same concept applies to smoking weed at the WSOP now that the state says it's legal for recreational use.

“We have local law enforcement on property, in our parking lots, and people get arrested with regularity if they're caught smoking on Rio grounds,” said WSOP Vice President of Corporate Communication Seth Palansky.

"Look, we don't have a special task force set up to go after these people or anything but if there's illegal activity happening on property we'll do what we have to do make this a safe and comfortable environment for people.

“It's like if I decide to drive 35 in a 25 zone, I'm risking getting a ticket so you have to know the risks before you make a decision.”

But if you're deep in a WSOP event with serious money on the line, the potential risk of smoking a joint in the parking lot is much higher than a speeding ticket.

When it comes to lifetime or long-term bans, however, Palansky explained that those are much more commonly given for offenses like unruly or violent behavior and security risks compared to getting caught smoking pot.

This is the second year of the WSOP's $888 buy-in Crazy Eights event and long-time poker player Terrence Chan says it provides a unique experience for recreational players.

It was introduced in 2016 in connection with the WSOP's main sponsor, 888poker.

The event is eight-handed, has four starting flights and last year awarded $888,888 to the winner, a Vietnamese-American small business owner from Ohio named Hung Le.

Amazingly, it was the first WSOP event Le had ever played.

The Crazy Eights is a huge tournament, even by WSOP standards. It's also the lowest buy-in live bracelet event available at the World Series of Poker.

In its first run last year it got 6,671 entries and had a prize pool of over $5.4 million.

Good Atmosphere, Great Value

But according to Chan the size of the field isn't the only reason it's a special tournament.

“It's one of my favorite No-Limit tournaments at the WSOP,” he said.

Chan's table in the Crazy Eights event.

“I particularly like it because it's eight-handed. It's a lot of fun. People are playing fast, it's full of recreational players. It's really friendly.

At the table next to Chan three players got all-in and they were all on their feet cheering as the board came out.

The player who busted was all smiles and quickly came around the table to congratulate and shake his opponent's hand.

And compared to other big-field, low buy-in events at the WSOP the Crazy Eights has 30 minute levels instead of 60 which means recreational players don't have to take as much time off work or out of their lives to come play.

“I don't enjoy the Colossus and the Millionaire Maker quite as much. This is a fast structure, you're in the money on Day 1,” said Chan.

“I think it ticks all the boxes for recreational players.”

Accessible Avenue to WSOP Experience

As the second flight began, the tournament registration area was still packed with people buying in.

Sean Henderson is from Cheyenne, Wyoming and has been coming to Vegas for the last 20 years. This is the first time he's ever played a WSOP event.

Alfonso and Jorge, two Crazy Eights players from Spain.

“In 2007 I won a Main Event seat but didn't play and then when Black Friday hit I slowed down a lot,” said Henderson.

“I've come to Vegas a lot to play poker but this is the first year I've based my whole trip around getting into the World Series of Poker.”

Henderson said the addition of more big-field, low buy-in events convinced him to play. His plan is to play cheaper events like the Crazy Eights to try to win enough money to play in the Main Event.

"Playing in the Main Event is a life-long dream for any poker player,” he said.

Alfonso and Jorge are two semi-professional poker players from Spain, and were also in line buying into the Crazy Eights.

"We'd like to call ourselves professionals but we've only been playing online for about one year so kind of professionals," said Jorge.

The two were staked to come play at the WSOP and have been playing all the No-Limit events with buy-ins up to $3,000.

With most of their experience online, both are familiar with big fields.

"I like big field tournaments if I run good but if not, I prefer small fields," Jorge joked.

A winner in the 2017 WSOP Crazy Eights event will be decided on July 4th.

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a quick phone call, a slow walk down a long hall and a quiet Uber ride back to the afternoon poker news big game.

Got a tip for a future edition of the 3-Bet? Drop us a note in the comments.

Today in the 3-Bet we find a quick exit for Dan Cates in the $50k PPC, John Racener rips to the WSOP POY lead and Usain Bolt & Kevin Hart call #GameOn.

1) Jungle Out First

The $50,000 Poker Players Championship is one of the signature events of the World Series of Poker and draws out the best of the game's best from all corners of the globe.

Ashton leads the way.

Outside of the Main Event it's the tourney poker players want to win to prove themselves a true master of all the games.

Past champs of course include the legendary Chip Reese, Scotty Nguyen and 2-time winners Michael Mizrachi and Brian Rast.

This year's edition got underway yesterday and, as is tradition, played very slow and deep with just 6 of the 93 entrants busting.

The first to go, sadly?

The scintillating Dan "Jungleman12" Cates, who doesn't usually play a lot of WSOP tournaments but somehow tore himself away from the Bobby's Room cash games to take a stab at it.

When you five-bet shove pre-flop for over 200 BBs and run into aces, though, things can end quickly.

Leading the troops into Day 2 is past winner Matt Ashton but a dazzling field is obv. still in the chase with names like Daniel Negreanu and 10x WSOP bracelet winner Johnny f-ing Chan in the Top 20.

Follow along with the live updates on WSOP.com and watch the PokerGo app for the live stream.

2) Racener Jumps Jesus for POY Lead

Remember last week when we mentioned the ominous presence of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in 2nd place in the WSOP Player of the Year race?

Racener on the grind.

Well, he's still there - although he did briefly take over the lead for a bit.

Last week the man holding off Ferguson for the lead was Ray Henson. Today it's former WSOP Main Event runner-up John Racener.

One of the more focused summer grinders Racener plays all the games and his versatility has shined as he's already piled up 13 cashes and won the $10k Dealer's Choice 6-Max.

He's also nicely over average stack in the $50k PPC heading into today so his profitable summer looks to roll on. Here's the current POY Top 10:

1. John Racener 691.66
2. Chris Ferguson 643.94
3. Raymond Henson 614.87
4. Ryan Hughes 592.87
5. John Monnette 583.92
6. Barry Greenstein 559.63
7. James Obst 555.58
8. Aditya Agarwal 544.99
9. Mike Leah 542.99
10. Daniel Negreanu 541.24

Check the full Player of the Year race here.

3) #GameOn for Usain Bolt and Kevin Hart

It's fast vs. funny. Tall vs. short. Smooth vs. bombastic.

Can Hart keep pace with fastest man on Earth?

However you want to label it the upcoming 'battle of wits' between PokerStars ambassadors Usain Bolt and Kevin Hart should be pretty engaging.

Dubbed "#GameOn", the two global superstars are embarking on a social media battle that will culminate in a live face-to-face battle at the 2018 PokerStars Bahamas Championship.

What exactly will it entail? We don't know exactly but, according to PokerStars, "#GameOn will embrace the core qualities and skills of poker with challenges to include reading people, bluffing and risk management."

Social media metrics will be the scorecard so Bolt will have his work cut out for him to keep pace with the massive following Hart has on his side.

Follow the two social behemoths on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook to watch it play out. Here's a quick look at how things will shape up:

Gus Hansen's been mostly absent from the poker scene since 2014 but he's back in Las Vegas playing high-stakes cash games and tournaments.

According to tracking sites Hansen lost roughly $17 million playing high-stakes poker online between 2012 and 2014.

But the Great Dane has been in Sin City since the end of May and he told PokerListings.com he's spent most of his time playing the big games in Bobby's Room at Bellagio.

Yesterday he entered his first WSOP event of the summer, the $50,000 buy-in Poker Player's Championship, but didn't make it to dinner on Day 2.

Hansen was at a table with Phil Hellmuth and Michael Mizrachi and after busting on a hand of PLO he told us about the big games he's been playing in the last few weeks and what he's been doing for the last few years.

PokerListings.com: It's great to see you at the WSOP. It's been a while. Can you fill us in on what you've been up to?

Gus Hansen: Little bit of poker but very little. If I have been playing anything it's been cash games. I was in King's Casino (in Czech Republic), a little bit in Vienna. I've been stopping by Vegas a bit and I've been here all summer but this is my first tournament.

PL: Have you been playing cash while you've been here?

GH: Yeah I've been playing cash in Bobby's Room. Some good days, some bad days. $2,000/$4,000 has been the main game.

Gus Hansen helped inspire a generation of poker players.

PL: How's it going?

GH: Up and down. Unfortunately before this tournament it's been mostly down.

I needed a little change of pace so I decided to play this one. But you need to be able to show the best hand once in a while.

I probably didn't play the best I've ever played but overall pretty happy with my performance. Again, you win some you lose some.

PL: The Gus Hansen we know has never needed the best hand to win.

GH: No, you don't but still in limit games there's only so much pressure you can put on people. In No-Limit or PLO there's some other possibilities but unfortunately here it didn't work out.

It's a nice tournament though. I might play a couple more but most likely only the Main Event.

PL: We've always known that you love action and competition so if you haven't been playing much poker where are you getting that fix?

GH: I play some other games, more on an amateur level. I play bridge and also squash which I do a lot. But otherwise I've been involved in some small business ventures.

PL: Any backgammon?

GH: Very little. After the WSOP there's the World Championship of Backgammon in Monaco so I'm definitely going there. Whether I'll be playing is another question.

You never know how the winds will blow. Maybe I'll play some cash games or just visit some old friends from the backgammon world.

PL: We've heard stories of you playing high-stakes backgammon in the past. Does that happen anymore?

"You'll definitely see me more in the poker scene."

GH: Very little. It could occur at some point in time but it's not something I'm planning.

PL: Are you planning to play more poker going forward?

GH: Definitely. I've always loved poker. So far here in Vegas it hasn't really been the outcome I was hoping for but I'm still around and you'll definitely see me more in the poker scene.

PL: Can you tell us any stories from Bobby's Room from this summer?

GH: I can't tell too many stories but there's big action going on and lots of banter. That's one of the things I like. Everyone is joking with everyone. If you lose you have to be able to take it. I'm pretty good at dishing it out so I have to be able to take it too.

PL: Even in this tournament which is a $50,000 buy-in, everyone at your table is joking around, even on your bustout hand. It's surprising that everyone's so relaxed even with so much money on the line.

GH: The money is definitely a big part of it and people are taking it seriously but for me it creates a more relaxed atmosphere and in general I think I'm more in tune and making better decisions if I'm not too serious and everyone's talking.

I like the joking and the banter but I think it's pretty easy to say I'm one of the most talkative people in poker in general and in the $50k. So probably my table is the most talkative regardless of the stakes.

PL: Is that an outlook you have in general, that it's important to have fun and enjoy what you're doing even if it's hard or there's a lot of pressure?

GH: I think that's good advice in general. If you want to be really good at something it has to be something you like to do and it's a lot easier to love something if you have fun doing it. So if it's always a drag you're probably never going to get good at it.

Obviously you still have to have a serious work ethic because it takes time but that doesn't mean you can't have fun doing it.

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a tin of beans, a tiny hot plate and all the comfort required to enjoy an exquisite afternoon poker news sunset.

Have a hot tip for a future 3-Bet? Tweet us @PokerListings or drop a note below.

Today in the 3-Bet we find Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi at home in the $50k PPC, Phil Galfond needs to get unstuck and WSOP reg Bryan Devonshire goes gypsy.

1) Mizrachi Stacked in PPC

As followers of poker know, Michael 'The Grinder" Mizrachi's style tends to lead to two outcomes:

He grinds, he scores.

As his $15.7m in career live tournament earnings suggest, it works out in his favor often enough to make it a profitable style.

And when it comes to the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship, that success ratio seems to tick up another notch.

As the de facto test to decide the 'best all-around player in the game,' Mizrachi has more than proven his mettle in the PPC as a two-time winner (only Brian Rast has duplicated that feat).

After a quiet Day 1 on Sunday with only 6 bustouts the pace quickened substantially yesterday on Day 2 and saw Mizrachi soar up the counts to over 1m in chips.

With just 44 players left heading to Day 3 he sits in third behind only Aaron Katz (1.6m) and Talal Shakerchi (1.48m).

Can he lock down a seat in the final 6 and a shot at an incredible third $50k PPC bracelet? It'll be fun to watch, regardless, so tune in to the @PokerGo app to see for yourself.

2) Galfond Stuck $800K?

It's been proven time and again that Phil Galfond is one of the top minds the game of poker has ever seen. So it's fitting, then, that he's also one of those 44 players remaining in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship today.

With around 720k in chips he's in a pretty decent spot, too, just outside the Top 10 in chips. But, by the sounds of it, a deep run isn't exactly optional for him right now:

Very #responsibly quit a cash game at 4am to get up and reg the $50k #WSOP #PPC. Need 2nd to get even. 1st would make me a big winner!

Somehow managed to bag 719k in the #WSOP #PPC. Only 42 people stand between me and having a breakeven summer!

Scary to think the whims of variance can hit one of the best so hard. Oh, and that second-place payout? It's $862,649.

Yeesh. According to Phil, though, hope springs eternal .. if he can just get past one small obstacle:

What would you say your worst game is, in this format?

HORSE https://t.co/FlQXUtUGeL

Lol. More gems from Phil on Twitter here.

3) From ESPN to Trailer Life

If you're a casual poker fan you might recognize pro Bryan Devonshire and his signature San Francisco Giants cap from his two very deep runs in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event - 12th in 2011 and 25th in 2014.

Indoor plumbing? Optional.

With plenty of screen time on ESPN the affable Devonshire became a fan favorite and bagged about $1m in payouts combined from those two runs alone.

You might not know, though, that he's also a white water rafting guide in Colorado in the summers which, for a guy with such big scores on his resume, might seem like an odd match.

Even odder, maybe? That he's now foregoing living in a house altogether:

Gypsy life, day one: fuck paying rent.

I'm surprised it took me this long. pic.twitter.com/QjRyp3cpbo

As Devonshire told us back in 2014, though, his first and foremost pursuit is balance and happiness and if a trailer in the desert is where he finds it, more power to him.

We'll keep an eye out for him in the Main Event. Feels like he's got a pretty good track record there worth swinging by Vegas for.

Thanks to a growing group of strong, successful women in poker, Esther Taylor-Brady is hopeful for greater gender equality in the game's future.

Taylor-Brady has played poker for more than a decade and for the last two years she was the only female to enter the WSOP's $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship.

Only one woman has ever cashed in that event: Melissa Burr in 2014.

Taylor-Brady, who goes by “E-Tay,” is sponsored by Parx Casino in Philadelphia and plays big buy-in mixed games where the swings can be anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000 in a single session.

She learned to play mixed games online before Black Friday shut down online poker in the United States and now makes a living playing cash games and tournaments all over the country.

Nine Cashes, Two Final Tables in 2017

"A lot of women approach me because you don't see a lot of women in the fields in these mixed-game events," said Brady. 

Taylor-Brady at 2015 WSOP

"So I know there's a lot of desire among women to learn mixed games but it's a lot harder these days without being able to play online.”

Brady said she logged hundreds of thousands of hands of all different variations of poker back when you could play a mixed-game tournament on the internet every hour for just dollars.

Another benefit of cutting her teeth online was not having to deal with the added challenge of being a woman in a largely male-dominated game. 

By the time she started playing live she already had experience and the confidence that comes with it.

“After that I kind of just had to earn respect like everyone does. I don't think it matters if you're a man or a woman,” she said. 

“If there's a new face in the field of the $50k, whoever it is, you're going to have to prove yourself."

So far at the 2017 World Series of Poker she's cashed in nine different tournaments including two final tables.

“Look at All These Strong, Confident Women”

Brady points at a group of women including Maria Ho, Cate Hall, Liv Boeree and many more as the biggest reason she's optimistic about women becoming better represented and facing less obstacles in poker.

In recent years poker has seen a surge in women winning major tournaments and Brady thinks the trend will continue.

"As a woman at the table we can't control how someone's going to treat us but we can control how we react and how strong we can be no matter how we're treated,” she said.

Maria Ho just one great example.

“In that sense I'm hopeful because there are so many strong female poker players who are already established.

“Am I hopeful that men are going to stop mistreating women in general? No. It just seems like human nature in some people. I think it's the reality of the world and society.

“But if you look at all these strong, independent, confident women who are leading the pack for women in poker, that's what makes me confident.

“Around 2006 when I started there were very few women. It was Jen Harman and Annie Duke. But now it's different. I could name 20 women right now who are super confident and really good at the game.

“These women are loud and confident about what they believe in and how women should be treated and that makes me optimistic.”

Same Game, Bigger Stakes

Brady explained that even though a $50,000 buy-in is more than she's used to, she's comfortable with the games and the players she's up against in the PPC.

She plays with many of the same people on a regular basis in mixed-game tournaments around the country but usually with buy-ins of $3,000 to $10,000.

"It's a boy's club but you don't necessarily have to be a boy to be in it.”

"I think if everyone in the tournament actually stepped back and realized we're playing a game where every single person put in $50,000, it's a pretty incredible experience and opportunity," said Brady.

"I've seen this tournament being played for years and 10 years ago I never would have imagined I'd be playing in it."

First place in this year's PPC is almost $1.4 million.

If You Can Compete, You Get Respect

Brady says that at the high stakes compared to low stakes she thinks it matters less whether you're a man or a woman. It's more important to be able to survive in a such a highly competitive and volatile game.

"If you can compete and handle these games and these stakes I think you're going to get the respect of your peers whether you're a man or a woman," said Brady.

"I've been around long enough and played with a lot of the same people for around 10 years now so I think that garners you some level of respect. Everyone pretty much treats me like one of the guys now.

"It's a boy's club but you don't necessarily have to be a boy to be in it.”