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Today in the 3-Bet we find a young Russian poker player taking a seat in Moscow politics, Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilonofsky winning his way to the $125k Premier League V and a star-packed pre-reg list for the EPT Grand Final Super High Roller announced.
1) Poker Player/Backer Max Katz Wins Municipal Seat in Moscow
27-year-old Max Katz, a young Russian poker player and entrepreneur, has taken his poker winnings and turned them into a taste of political power.
According to Russia Now, Katz funded his election campaign for a municipal council seat in Moscow through his poker winnings, won the election and will now sit as the representative for the Shchukino district.
A mid-level live and online pro with about $167k in live earnings, Katz has made most of his money through backing deals and his poker staking site Pokeroff.ru.
Most notably Katz had a large share of 2011 WSOP Main Event champ Pius Heinz’s $8.9 million win. He also had 50% of Galen Hall’s $2.3 million win in the PCA Main Event and a share of Ben Wilonofsky's EPT Berlin win.
As with most successful politicians however, there may have been a darkside to his career aspirations as Katz has also been accused of running a ghosting business where people deep in tournaments could hand over their accounts to better players.
Katz says his election victory has little “true” power but it is a good first step to his future aspirations.
“I want to become mayor in a small Russian town when I am 35, and test my urban development plans,” Katz said.
More on Katz's backing deals here and here.
2) Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilonofsky Earns $125k Seat to Premier League V
The second Qualifying Event for the Party Poker Premier League V has just wrapped and it's aforementioned 2011 EPT Berlin champ Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilonofsky who has earned his seat in the big show.
Wilonofsky outlasted a tough six-player field that included Steve O'Dwyer, Griffin "Flush_Entity" Benger and Xuan Liu before topping Melanie Weisner heads-up to earn the lucrative shot at the invited Premier League lineup.
While he dominated the later part of the qualifying round, Wilonofsky needed a huge suckout against Benger early to survive.
Here’s how the two described the hand:
Matt Frankland won the first Qualifying event yesterday and will also join the $125k Premier event tomorrow in Vienna.
Wilonofsky joins Sam Trickett, Dan Cates, Patrik Antonius, Vanessa Selbst, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, ElkY and Scott Seiver in Group B.
Frankland faces off with Tony G, Luke Schwartz, Phil Laak, Andy Frankenberger, Erik Seidel, Eugene Katchalov and Tom Dwan in Group A.
Tune in to the Party Poker blog for live updates from Vienna.
3) Pre-Reg List for €100k EPT Super High Roller is Stacked
Speaking of stacked fields with gigantic amounts of money on the line, PokerStars released the initial 20-player lineup for the €100,000 Super High Roller event at the upcoming EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo today.
As expected, it’s a doozy and stacked with poker’s best players. But there also may be a few notable weak spots.
The €100,000 Super High Roller will be the kickoff event at the Grand Final starting on April 23 and already has a guaranteed prize pool of €2 million.
Official list of players registered below:
Check the PokerStars blog for more names as they are announced and tune into PokerListings for live news and blogs frm the tourney floor.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com