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Today in the 3-Bet we find Mike Matusow on a high-stakes heater in Vegas, Shane Schleger in the midst of a rough beat and Jean-Robert Bellande giving us a taste of the most beautiful poker chip in the world.
1) Matusow on High-Stakes Heater, Reaping Rewards
Not many people in poker were hit harder mentally by the Full Tilt Poker meltdown than Mike "The Mouth” Matusow.
As he put it in a candid WSOP interview with PokerListings this summer:
“I went through some mental problems and didn’t really leave my house for like six months but I’m doing well now…
“I’ve had my name smashed through the mud. God knows how much I had stolen from me by Full Tilt.”
A bit obnoxious and slightly melodramatic at times, sure, but Matusow is still a classic old school poker hero to some so it’s good to see things may be turning around for The Mouth lately.
A recent high-stakes heater at Aria is the primary reason, according to his tweets:
Kicked ass in a all night poker session now hanging out with my friends @aria suite twitter.com/themouthmatuso…
— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) August 12, 201218 hr poker session with another mashing under the belt feeling good running good #blastoff
— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) August 13, 2012well im awake, long 2 days but very profitable now gonna head to bellagio and play some 400 800 and try and keep this train rolling #rungood
— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) August 14, 2012A turned corner for The Mouth? Only time and more tweet pics of boobs and hotel suites will tell.
2) PokerStars Pro Schleger Battling Middle Ear Disturbance
In one for the "count your blessings" file, PokerStars pro Shane Schleger has explained in a new blog post he's been suffering from a strange middle-ear disturbance for the past 15 months.
It sounds, well, truly horrible. How he describes it:
Like "that crackling, exploding sensation that hits the back of your throat" when you eat Pop Rocks "but inside your ear and with no way of swallowing."
Or like "a piece of stiff rubber lodged inside my head that just spins around in a futile attempt to escape."
Currently in Switzerland to meet with an inner-ear specialist, Schleger writes that at least poker has given him brief respite:
“The only time I get complete relief from the strange sounds and pressure in my ear is when I fall sleep (which I'm grateful to be able to do).
“During daylight hours, the best it gets for me is being able to forget about the problem for some amount of time.
“Luckily, I guess, it seems that playing poker helps provide the distraction necessary to create those burden-free moments, but those moments last minutes, not hours.”
At last report, however, there may be some hope. Check the full saga out here.
3) Aria $100k Chip Most Beautiful in the World?
As we shared yesterday, we’re a big fan of poker plaques and pictures of big stacks of said plaques.
They're pretty James Bond-ish, have a cool feel and seem like a step up in class from bundles of cash or standard poker chips, whatever the denomination.
Our suggestion that Sam Trickett’s $1.2 million plaque stack was the sickest poker photo of all time, however, met with some serious skepticism.
And fair enough. Dan Bilzerian’s pic of a full rack of Aria $100k chips was a frontrunner for sickest pic ever, and we'd have to agree.
Circa $9 million on the table at any one time is pretty tough to beat, even if it is in ho-hum chip form.
Jean-Robert Bellande, a regular at the Aria game, seems to agree about the beauty of the Aria $100k chip at least.
He snapped this photo yesterday of just one chip, but it does still look pretty good.
The most beautiful poker chip of all time!#pleasegodJRB instagr.am/p/OVTrWyNf8Z/
— Jean-Robert Bellande (@BrokeLivingJRB) August 15, 2012We'll give it to you. It's pretty.
But we're still gonna try and find a plaque pic that beats it. Stay tuned.
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