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Today in the 3-Bet we find Neil Channing rueing the spread of bumhunting, Jason Mercier signing off on another prop bet and gambling artist David Choe hitting the Facebook jackpot.
1) Channing Calls Out Bumhunters, Says Ruining Live Games
When it comes to gambling and all of its tributaries, Neil Channing has been around the block.
A former bookmaker who made his living felting tourists at the Grosvenor Victoria casino in London long before hitting the tournament circuit, Channing knows what it takes to get a good game running.
Unfortunately, much like Phil Galfond recently lamented about the high-stakes games online, Channing says bumhunters are ruining the live games at the Vic now too.
In particular, he says it’s a specific group of young players doing it:
“I hate this to sound like a tirade against youth, it's just that this is an Internet phenomena and it is a group of young players that are causing it.
“They don't seem to get how fragile the eco-structure of live poker is and they are not thinking of the future.
“The whole thing is kind of a prisoner's dilemna. I was always prepared to suck up some of the bad stuff, to take the losses in bad games, for the long-term good of the game.
“Nobody seems to care about the long-term anymore so I too have stopped caring.”
Bottom line: You got to give action to get action, youngsters.
More from Channing in his Black Belt Poker blog.
2) Mercier vs. Reporter Head-to-Head in Seven Sports
Everyone knows Jason Mercier likes to throw around a prop bet or two.
Given his status as one of the most successful tournament players of the last few years, though, it’s rare someone in the media can afford his stakes.
Dutch poker reporter Renko Rinkema apparently can as they’ve laid a $5,000 prop bet down to play out at the 2012 World Series of Poker.
The challenge? Play seven sports head-to-head and the winner of four will take the $5k.
Rinkema gets to pick four sports and Mercier three with a mediator setting the terms for the specific challenge within each sport.
After getting a few suggestions rejected, including tug-of-war and snowboarding, Rinkema finally settled on these:
@happyfreaked: "After long deliberation I pick Cycling, Shot pot, Rowing and inline speed skating.
Mercier picked these:
@JasonMercier I choose basketball, racquetball, baseball guess I just gotta figure out which of Remko's sports I can win at"
We're guessing it won't be shot pot. Read more and find the challenge terms on the PokerStars blog here.
3) Degen Gambler David Choe Hits Huge with Facebook Stock
If you’ve ever seen artist David Choe’s work and/or hitchhiking show Thumbs Up on Vice TV, you know he’s both a) a brilliant graffiti artist and b) a degenerate gambler.
More of a blackjack player than a poker player, we're sure he's likely spent a night or two at the poker tables to ease his gambling itch though.
Long story short, either way we love it when a gambler hits it big and Choe has definitely just hit it big.
Back in 2005, Choe painted the murals for the original Facebook office in return for stock instead of $60,000 in pay.
That stock was just valued at around $500 million in the recent IPO.
Lesson being: Sometimes it pays really, really well to be a gambler.
More on his Facebook winfall from the NY Times here.
Watch this episode of Thumbs Up below to see his degen side when they hit Vegas:
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