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Today in the 3-Bet we find Guy Laliberté graphically characterizing his online poker losses pre-Black Friday, Poker Princess Molly Bloom outs Tobey Maguire in her upcoming book and a writer asks if Viktor Blom is in over his head.
1) Laliberté: "I Provided the Vaseline"
The reclusive Guy Laliberté was profiled in the Journal de Montreal today and man - he had some pretty shocking things to say about his online poker experience.
The truth surrounding Laliberté's epic losses to a revolving group of Full Tilt pros pre-Black Friday was always suspected but to hear it from the horse's mouth - albeit in French so there may be some room for misinterpretation - was rattling.
Referring to online poker as his "craziest expenditure" in life Laliberté asserts he was outright scammed by people he knew personally (translated via Google):
"I should have remembered that I am a dinosaur compared to this [internet].
"The story of Full Tilt is clear: I got scammed, squarely, by people I knew personally who used an unlimited bank, paying no money.
"... they printed money to play against me, and they put two, three ... I was stupid."
How much he lost in total he answered, "I have done as a school kid." But even worse, Laliberté said, it hurts not because of the money he lost but that he helped them do it:
"I have the feeling of having made it myself and have provided Vaseline."
Yowsa is all we can say to that. Read the full interview in French here.
2) Tobey Buys In DiCaprio, Manipulates Beal
The pardoning of poker princess Molly Bloom this week made some headlines, sure.
Her forthcoming book, Molly's Game, in which she names names and shares secrets of the huge high-stakes cash games she helped organize, will surely make a lot more.
An in-depth feature about the book and its protagonists - in particular actor/Spiderman Tobey Maguire - came out today in the New York Observer and the minutiae of the legendary underground games sounds fascinating.
By the sounds of it Maguire was a bit of a shrewd hustler among pie-eyed rich business types looking for a celebrity rush along with their poker. From the Observer:
"Mr. Maguire is regarded as the single best player among the poker-playing actors. According to two sources, neither of whom would agree to be quoted by name because both continue to operate in the poker circles where Mr. Maguire plays, Ms. Bloom says that one of Mr. Maguire’s tricks is that he essentially staged the games in order to attract well-heeled players.
“'Tobey got Molly to concoct these games using friends like Leo DiCaprio to sit at the table. Tobey was basically paying their entry fee, and using Leo as a lure to get these billionaires like Alec Gores and Andy Beal to come to the games.'”
To which we say, well, well played Tobey. Beal, of course, is no rube when it comes to poker and likely more than held his own. But still fascinating all the same. Plenty more bits revealed in the feature too - read it in full here.
3) Has Viktor Blom Reached His Level of Poker Incompetence?
Call us the messenger on this one rather than the originator - we still think Viktor Blom is one of the sickest players ever to step up to the felt.
Our PokerListings Germany counterpart Rainer Vollmar, however, may think otherwise.
His theory? Blom may have fallen prey to The Peter Principle - a well known management theory that says people get promoted (in the case of poker, rise up the stakes) past their level of competence and then get overwhelmed.
Borderline blasphemy to suggest in the case of Blom? Absolutely. Just so crazy it might be true?
Also very possible. Check out Vollmar's theory right here.
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