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Today in the 3-Bet we correct a gross oversight in our Players to Watch list, salivate over some potential high-stakes history-making and get inside Phil Galfond's head.
1) Xuan Love
If we could go back in time and add one name to our 2012 Players to Watch list, it would be Xuan Liu.
The third-winningest female player on the poker circuit last year (over $500k in cashes), the Toronto native has everything a poker player needs to crush in 2012:
Momentum from 2011, a rapidly expanding game, razor sharp intelligence, drive and focus, personality and a sense of humor.
She also runs in a pretty sweet circle of high-caliber poker friends (Scott Seiver, Mike Watson) to continue to help her take her game to the next level.
A bit under the radar for the last few years, she started to pile up results last year including a third-place finish in San Remo for €360,000 and a deep run at the EPT Grand Final.
She’s up over 1 million in chips in the PCA main event as we speak and locked down at least another $52k for her spot in the final 24.
Basically, if Xuan Liu isn’t a huge poker superstar by the time the year is over, the world is not right.
Follow her on Twitter here and on her blog here.
2) Patrik Makes Another Million
Preliminary events for the Aussie Millions are just about to get underway but the huge cash games have apparently already started rolling according to Tony G.
The big-game insider tweeted a pic of him smoking a sheesha last night after closing a huge session at the cash-game tables at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.
He won a bit, but Patrik Antonius won a lot according to the G.:
Just finished 1k/2k PLO @crownpoker - patrik up a million - ended up a small winner. Game continues tomorrow
We can only hope Tom Dwan, Andrew Robl, Phil Ivey and the other high rollers have also hopped a plane from Macau down to Crown and the games get progressively ridiculous.
We’ll be there in person next week and hope to catch a few hands among the millionaires.
Stay tuned to our poker news section for a few exclusive Auusie Millions previews and live coverage starting on the 18th.
3) The Dangerous Mind of Phil Galfond
He said he would be more open and available to the poker community in 2012 and so far Phil Galfond is more than living up to his word.
Barely two weeks in and he's already posted three in-depth blog posts, including his latest today with a very deep look into his poker thought process on a couple of recent hands.
If you ever wanted some proof why Galfond is one of the most respected poker minds in the world, this is it.
While he may play at stakes unfathomable to you and me, there's always something you can take from his approach to the game and apply to yours.
Simply put, he's one of the best in the world and insight like this, for free, is a rarity.
Given that he's been at the tables virtually non-stop, playing over 11,000 hands this week and battling with some of the toughest players in the world including Isildur1, it's amazing he's can even write something coherent let alone insightful.
Get it while it's hot here.
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