Want the latest news and gossip emanating from the World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas? Here's where it's at.
Today in the 3-Bet we find Mark "newhizzle" Newhouse creating an unbeatable benchmark for the modern WSOP era, foosball world champ Billy Pappas (aka William Pappaconstantinou) lives out a dream and steady Swedish pro Martin Jacobson goes wire-to-wire.
1) Newhouse Back-to-Back; Appears Unbeatable
Last year, he came into the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event eighth in chips, playing second fiddle to the chip leaders and bowing out in what he call "the worst possible" spot - ninth.
This year, you could argue the WSOP Main Event title is his to lose - and it doesn't look like he sees any chance of that happening.
To start: Mark Newhouse's back-to-back November Nines is one of the greatest poker accomplishments of the modern poker era.
Dan Harrington in 2003/2004 and Johnny Chan (back-to-back wins in 87/88, runner-up in '89) have final-tabled the Main Event in consecutive years but not facing the enormous fields Newhouse has.
Not anywhere close.
To even think about doing it in 6,500-player fields is absurd; to actually do it AND come into your second one in BETTER position to win ... ludicrous.
That's the spot Newhouse is in now, sitting third in chips at 26m. Jorryt van Hoof and Felix Stephensen have more, but Newhouse has all the sizzle.
And, like he tweeted out before the ME began and told us yesterday: There's no f'ing way he's finishing 9th this year. Vid below:
2) Billy Pappas: "I Have No Idea Who These Guys Are"
God bless poker and God bless the World Series of Poker Main Event.
There are literally zero sporting competitions in the world that have as much joyful unpredictability and sheer random magic to its world championship. None.
Case in point: 2014 November Niner William "Billy Pappas" Constantinou. Try these circumstances out for size, according to a piece in the Las Vegas Sun:
1) The 2014 Main Event is Pappas' first-ever WSOP event 2) Pappas is a 12-time World Champion in Foosball (Table Football) 3) Originally planned to take time off from poker-dealer job to go to foosball tournament in Austria 4) Never played an event with a buy-in over $500 5) Friend talked him into playing (and paid for it) 3 days before Main Event 6) Pappas has no idea who any of the other players are 7) "I’m not a poker player, to be honest," he said
He plans to study no one's game and won't hire a coach, preferring instead to not know "how much better than me they are at this game.”
Now he's guaranteed $730k and a shot - albeit small - at $10 million.
3) Don't Sleep on Martin Jacobson
Martin Jacobson is, quite literally, an awesome poker player.
A $4m winner live, a $3.5m+ winner online and two-time EPT main event runner-up, Jacobson has probably the purest poker pedigree of all the final tablists.
He wavered slightly down the home stretch, coming into the final nine eighth in chips, but make no mistake: Jacobson is the best poker player left at this table.
The chip leader at the end of Day 1a Jacobson barely moved from the top of the counts for the entire seven days of play and there's a very good reason for that:
He just doesn't make many mistakes.
Trying to become the first player since Joe Cada in 2009 to go wire-to-wire from a Day 1 chip lead to the Main Event title, there's absolutely no doubt if a couple of cards break Jacobson's way early he could run away with the title.
If we were betting people - and we are - there's no way Jacobson isn't getting at least a few bucks put on him. More on him here.
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