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Today in the 3-Bet we find FOX TV Host John Stossel ripping government hypocrisy over gambling, Houston Rocket Chandler Parsons hustling Holdem games on the team plane and an amazing looking teaser about Atlanta's underground poker games.
1) Stossel: Gov't Likes Gambling Only When It's the House
We don't know much about FOX TV host John Stossel and his political bent tbh but we can definitely find some common ground with his stance on government and gambling.
As he lays it out in a new piece on Reason.com, there's a bit of a double standard going on there:
"Politicians can't quite make up their minds about gambling: They approve certain casinos and promote state lotteries but crack down on sports bets and some charity poker games. It seems that government dislikes gambling, unless government gets to be the house.
"Increasingly, government is. After locking up bookies for "dangerous and criminal" activities ... most states now offer much worse odds in state lotteries. Then they take money from taxpayers to advertise their scams ...
"Politicians award casino permits to politically connected businessmen who make most of their money from slot machines that offer miserable odds. But when "unapproved" websites offered Internet poker, at far better odds, the federal government charged operators with "money laundering" and shut the sites down."
Seems, well... pretty reasonable. Check the full piece here.
2) Chandler Parsons Crushing Post-Game Holdem
We know the Vancouver Canucks, led by commited poker lover Roberto Luongo, and plenty of other NHL teams dabble in some poker on the road. The Washington Wizards, uh, definitely did too.
Know we know some of the NBA's Houston Rockets - including Jeremy Lin, Omri Casspi and Chandler Parsons - also share our love for the game.
As Parsons explains in a new Grantland interview they've been diving into some pretty deep Holdem games on plane trips lately with the stakes as high as - gasp - $1,000:
The sample size, according to Parsons, is only five flights... but still. It's always good to know who the team hustler is. Full interview here.
3) "If You Want ... a Back Alley Game, You Can Go to a Back Alley Game"
If Parsons and the Rockets Holdem crew are looking for a more serious game they might want to reach out to a couple of guys on the Atlanta Hawks, apparently.
According to this amazing "character selects" sizzle reel about the underground poker scene in Atlanta it is the hub for poker in the South. And some Hawks players dabble in the game from time to time, too - along with a litany of actors, entertainers, business guys and more.
It's hard to even pick out the best character here. Energy Drink guy? Awesome. Guy with the gold grill? Awesome. Relative of Josh Arieh? Cool. Friend of the Gambino family? Ridiculous. Shannon? God bless.
This. Show. Would. Be. Amazing. Behold:
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