The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a sip of beer, a hit from the bong and three magical, unforgettable afternoon poker news moments.
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Today in a Throwback Thursday 3-Bet we retrace some of poker's most memorable moments including Jamie Gold's epic WSOP steamroll, Phil Hellmuth's weed-inspired vision quest and Brad Booth's ballsy bluff.
1) Chan to Gold: "This is Your Year"
For our money poker's Fear and Loathing moment - when the wave peaked before it started ebbing back to the sea - was the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
We're a bit biased, of course - mostly because we were there and the swag flowing out of the VIP rooms was truly mind-blowing.
But if you weren't at least a little bit enthralled by Jamie Gold's unconventional steamrolling to the biggest ME prize ever over the biggest field - $12m and 8,773 respectively - you're dead inside.
There was a lot of blowback towards Gold after the fact for his seeming disregard for standard poker etiquette (and a few other things) but the truth is he was quite literally doing something people had never really seen before. And it was working.
We caught up with Gold at the WSOP this summer and asked him for a few recollections. They're pretty amazing:
2) Hellmuth: "It was April 1987. I was drinking. And I smoked pot."
"I was never a big drug guy. I was never a big drinker. But it was like April 1987. And I was drinking. And I smoked pot. And it was like 2 in the afternoon.
"I'm in Madison, Wisconsin. I go to this little bar. My friends are playing pool for $10 a game. Maybe I had $15,000 in the bank. I'm trying to have fun but I'm like, you know...
" I went over to the door. And I opened this door. And boom the sunlight hit me.And it's just dancing around, all this sunlight. And I'm like 'What the hell are you doing with your life?'
"I got in a taxi and went straight home and rolled up all thee goal sheets for the rest of my life. And, you know, the #1 goal was to win the Main Event. And it was like a year-and-a-half later that I actually pulled it off."
Ladies and Gentlemen, the amazing Phil Hellmuth origin story:
3) Ivey to Booth: "You're a Sick ****"
No matter how many times we watch the old High Stakes Poker clip or Brad Booth's re-telling of it we never get sick of this story.
Three stacks of high society. Two poker icons. One puffy shirt. Poker magic.
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