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Today in the 3-Bet we find Dan Colman's less-than-enthusiastic response to winning $15m proving welcome fodder for sports blogs, Humberto Brenes among a number of poker pros seeing their sponsored tenure end and the age of live poker robots is at hand.
1) Colman Wins, Looks Sad, People Notice
Last night's ESPN broadcast of the $1m Big One for One Drop final table is all over the lips of poker people and non-poker people alike this morning, and for good reason.
One reason, of course, is this wildly entertaining hand between Tobias Reinkemeier and Scott Seiver. The other is the "muted" reaction of Dan Colman to his $15m win.
At least two major mainstream sports publications in Yahoo! Sports and The Big Lead took notice with Yahoo! writer Jay Busbee dubbing Colman's hangdog look post-win as "The saddest reaction to winning $15m you'll ever see."
Busbee did dig a little deeper and re-posted Colman's original 2+2 explanation also but his headline is likely pretty indicative of what most viewers saw.
It wasn't a barefooted, ride-around-on-shoulders kind of vibe, to say the least.
Say what you will about Colman's reasoning, which he's also now slightly altered, the irony of the situation is that it will drum up even more attention for poker. Oh, the trials of youth! Watch the clip of the final hand and Colman's reaction below; full episodes here:
2) Humberto, Guillen, Barbero Contracts Not Renewed
As reported by CardPlayer Latin America over the last week a few very notable names will not be wearing the PokerStars Team patch anymore.
Most significantly, at least in terms of global recognition, is Costa Rica's all-time live tourney money leader Humberto Brenes.
The popular and world-famous "chaark" has confirmed that after 8 years as a PokerStars Team pro his contract, which ended on July 31, was not renewed.
Far from acrimonious, however, Brenes told PokerNews the ending of the relationship was mutual as new contract terms didn't suit the company or himself.
Brenes cashed an impressive 10 times at this summer's World Series of Poker although his biggest cash was just $25,327 for a 14th-place finish in the $10k Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship.
Also seeing their contracts not renewed were Mexico's Angel Guillen and Argentina's Nacho Barbero.
Juan Carreño, PokerStars Regional Manager, told CardPlayerLA the decisions were made as a result of budget cuts in the region and a lack of live events in both countries that can't support multiple Team Pros.
A "generational change," to bring in new talent, is also part of the reasoning. More info (in Spanish) here.
3) The Shape of Poker (and the World) to Come
We've seen the rise of the bots in online poker. And poker machines taking over from live tables at casinos.
How long until the live poker pro is entirely replaced by a thinking robot? Not long, according to this video.
At least Dan Colman can take heart. In just a few years the whole world will be run by robots and his backers, like Olivier Busquet and Haralobos Voulgaris, won't even consider wasting a buy-in on a mistake-riddled human like himself. (h/t to Dan Idema for the video)
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