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Today in the 3-Bet we find poker's Gaëlle Garcia Diaz making headlines in the football world, Phil Hellmuth blows up on Twitch and an $18m eSports prize pool.
1) Gaëlle Dating ManU's Fellaini
Give our penchant for CFL football and American Gladiator reruns we're not the most up-to-speed in the world's most popular sporting realm.
That realm is, of course, actual "football," aka soccer, to which the rest of the world is more or less glued to 24 hours a day.
Belgian Marouane Fellaini is apparently a big name within those regards and plies his trade for one of the biggest sports franchises in the world in English Premier League club Manchester United.
We've seen a few ManU-poker connections before but it was news to us that Gaëlle Garcia Diaz, erstwhile PokerStars presenter and 2014 Battle of Malta VIP guest, is actually dating the renowned Fellaini.
She made headlines last week with a titillating teaser about his off-field skills but what we're more interested in is how much money she's taking off those suckers in the post-match poker games. Video below:
2) Hellmuth v. Billionaires Blowing Up Twitch
Want to watch Phil Hellmuth play billionaires like Bill Lee and Silicon Valley icons like Chamath Palihapitiya in $200-a-point Pineapple OFC?
Of course you do. As did about 211,000 other people on Monday as part of a truly whopping debut for Hellmuth's Twitch channel.
We're pretty sure he has a piece of the app he's playing on, but still.
3) $18m Prize Pool, $6.6m Title in Dota 2 Championship
It was pretty cool that American team Evil Geniuses, led by eSports legend Clinton "Fear" Loomis, upset the favored Chinese team CEDC to win the Dota 2 International Tournament this weekend.
Even more amazing? The total prize pool was $18m (!) and the winner's share was $6.6m (!).
It's split five ways, sure, but those are some major league prize pool numbers. In fact they're so major league they're bigger than virtually every single poker tournament held, well, ever (obvious exceptions aside).
Given its growing presence on ESPN and booming streaming networks like Twitch is Dota 2 now the "new poker" for the kids? Or even going to draw some of those famous gaming/poker crossover stars back across the divide?
Interesting. Very interesting. More on the first huge Dota 2 tournament/Loomis in this great documentary below:
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