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Today in the 3-Bet we find PokerStars pro Jason Mercier talking about his brutal 2012 and big plans for 2013, Xuan Liu offering up her time for a hang out and a charitable donation and we revisit poker's most successful couples.
1) Mercier Talks Brutal 2012, Sets $1m Goal for 2013
Tell someone in the real world you made $500k last year but it sucked, you’ll probably get punched in the face. In the poker world, though, you might -- might -- get a bit of sympathy. Still, likely a punch in the face.
Such was life for PokerStars pro Jason Mercier last year. Despite over half a million in tourney cashes, Mercier says in his latest blog post it was his first losing year as a pro.
Some huge cash-game losses (including $500k at the LAPC in Feb.) rattled his confidence and he says it took the full year to recover, setting him up for, he hopes, a better 2013:
“When you feel like you can't win a hand and lose so much in such a short period of time, you start to question whether or not you even know what you're doing at the table.
“That can be very dangerous, to both your bottom line and your confidence. You really have to grit your teeth and stick to your game.
“It took me a while to get some confidence back. But I kept plugging away at it and got some momentum going towards the end of the year. I think I'm going to carry that forward throughout a very busy 2013.
“My goal for the year is to make a million dollars. Not to have a million dollars in Hendon Mob entries; to have a million more dollars at the end of the year than I had at the beginning.”
2) Xuan Liu Joins in St. Jude’s Fundraising
The poker world jumped all over Daniel Negreanu's fundraising mission for St Jude's Hospital this week, already contributing over $158,000 to the cause - well over his original aim of $100k.
Inspired by Negreanu’s impassioned plan and generosity in matching donations up to $50,000, poker pro Xuan Liu has joined in with her own offer.
Beyond donating her own money, she’s putting up her own time for anything from poker coaching to a lunch date. Keep your mind out of the gutter though - she has a boyfriend.
Check the clip below and donate to Liu here; donate to Negreanu’s efforts here.
3) 20 Highly Successful Poker Couples
It's kind of hard to avoid talking about it today so we're just gonna come right out and say it.
We have a soft spot for poker couples. It's embarrassing, but we do.
Given a bunch of factors – gender imbalance, isolation, variance, downswings, etc – finding and keeping a relationship in poker might be one of the toughest things in life to pull off.
To do it and win a ton of money is pretty much unfathomable. So as a tribute to the effort it has to take to defeat the odds and find love in poker, we put together a list of 20 of our favorite poker couples last week.
If we had to pick a favorite favorite?
It might just be Lex Veldhuis and Evelyn Ng, who successfully combine so many levels of shared nerdom, genius and profit it's unfair really.
Check out our full list of highly successful poker couples here. If you're really just into lists of 20 things, here's our 20 Most Fascinating People in Poker list.
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