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Today in the 3-Bet we find Dan Smith explaining how to keep calm in high-intensity situations, Jean-Robert Bellande gets desparate in a bid for $70,000 and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow recovers from spinal surgery.
1) KingDan Stays Cool
If you've been watching the playdown to the WSOP Main Event on ESPN every Sunday you've seen a lot of Dan "KingDan" Smith lately.
The current #1 player on the Global Poker Index Smith has been at the featured table plenty and played a lot of notable hands.
Mostly he's been dragging big pots and building his stack up to 10m+ to make the final 27 and stand a very legitimate shot of making the final nine (Spoiler alert: He doesn't, but still.)
The other thing you might have noticed is he's actually having a really good time. Playing huge hands with millions of dollars at stake, Smith is almost playing as if he's just tossing pennies around in his local home game.
How does he stay so calm? Smith explained in a new piece in Entrepreneur magazine today just the things to keep in mind to keep stress levels down, regardless of your situation. His list:
1. Manage Your Expectations 2. Prepare as Much as Possible 3. Move On From Mistakes 4. Diversify Your Interests
Check the explanations for each here.
2) JRB Not Cool. But Getting Pretty Thin
One of the funnier ongoing sagas over the past week or so has been the desparate race to the finish for Jean-Robert Bellande's $70,000 weight-loss bet.
Long story short: In August JRB tweeted he had $70k in bets to go from 287 lbs down to 245 by Nov. 1. That day is obviously fast approaching and JRB still has some work to do:
70k weight loss bet: must weigh 245lbs by Nov 1st. 9 days to go and I'm frozen at 254lbs (started at 287lbs). Brutal! #brokescale
— Jean-Robert Bellande (@BrokeLivingJRB) October 22, 2014251.8 lbs. #brokepumpkin
— Jean-Robert Bellande (@BrokeLivingJRB) October 26, 20144.6 lbs over... 3 days to go #brokepumpkin
— Jean-Robert Bellande (@BrokeLivingJRB) October 28, 2014Among the more aggressive suggestions his Twitter followers have offered to cut the rest of the weight asap: Pick up a brief meth habit, try a colon cleanse or run with trash bags wrapped around him.
We'd go with something more like a juice/water cleanse and some sauna time, but that's just us.
Whatever he does it's clearly going to go down to the wire and we can't look away. Will poker's Charlie Brown get the money football snatched away at the last second? Tune in here to find out!
3) Matusow Has Spinal Surgery, Will Walk Again
This slipped under the radar somehow but a tweet from long-time pal Phil Hellmuth threw some Mike Matusow fans for a serious loop this week:
Great news from @TheMouthMatusow, although his spinal surgery had serious complications: he will walk again! #GoMikey #ComebackTimeAgain
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) October 24, 2014Not many - if any - knew the situation could have been so dire but all are happy to hear Matusow is out of the woods and recovering.
Reports from 2+2 suggest the issue was a bulging disc near his spine. Nothing from Matusow himself on the situation although he has been semi-active on Twitter with a series of bowling retweets.
You read that right. Follow Matusow on Twitter here. And best wishes to Mike on a full recovery.
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