Bencb Shares Habits He Said No to
Seven commandments (or recommendations) came from Bencb, including avoiding drugs, sugar, and “Basically all the fun things” according to Bart Hanson.
Seven things I stopped or never did in my 20s that not only made me far more successful but also helped me meet like-minded people, build great friendships, and find a LOT more peace and happiness in my life:
— bencb (@bencb789) January 4, 2024
▶️ Avoiding drugs (specifically weed)
▶️ Letting go of toxic friends…
Back in March of 2023, Bencb exposed his own profits on Twitter/X, and showed he’d made over $1.4 million on GG and more than $2.4 million on PokerStars.
Fedor Holz Finds Two Funny Screenshots
The story about Sean Perry’s misfortune hasn’t been missed by Fedor Holz, who put two complementary screenshots together just after Christmas.
A story in two parts pic.twitter.com/JVZZsGWvFZ
— Fedor Holz 🐧 (@CrownUpGuy) December 26, 2023
Charlie Carrel asks “Who Has Done the Most for Poker?”
Maybe, just maybe, there should have been more than three players available to choose from, but it’s still a worthy question to ask. At least put Doyle Brunson in the runnings?
Who's the player that has done the most for poker?@CMONEYMAKER @RealKidPoker @phil_hellmuth
— Charlie Carrel (@Charlie_Carrel) January 4, 2024
Other/Who am I missing?
Chris Moneymaker chimed in, saying, “Feel like this is a no-brainer”.
Phil Galfond Confirms that GGPoker Confirmed There was a Hack
The RunItOnce founder ran two tweets on GGPoker’s superuser issue from Christmas, saying the user could see all-in percentages – not hole cards – and that all is fixed now.
GG confirms that there was a hack.
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 29, 2023
This player exploited a client-side vulnerability that gave him access to all-in win percentages (not hole cards).
They say they identified the data leak two weeks ago and pushed a fix, but this player had already created their own client that… https://t.co/gasbXFBdg8
Daniel Negreanu declares “Quality Over Quantity”
Just about to rebuy for a small tournament, Daniel Negreanu reconsidered. Now he claims to be a refocused 49-year-old who won’t try to beat “GTO wizards” – instead, he’ll just get dialed in and care about the game.
I’ve been in poker for 30 years and throughout that time I’ve had several lightbulb moments
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) January 3, 2024
The latest, I shared in a VLOG from WSOP Paradise in Bahamas
I busted a small tourney and was going to do what everyone does and just rebuy… but I didn’t really feel like playing and… pic.twitter.com/h79QToEr58
This continues the cathartic trend Daniel has shown recently. In the first days of January, he published a 20+ minute video on losing over $2 million in 2023.
Bart Hanson Starts the New Year with Strange Kit Kat Flavors
That’s right. Bart Hanson is more than just the owner of Crush Live Poker; he also seems to own varieties of Kit Kat that nobody knew existed (or needed to exist).
Just walked downstairs and found this on my kitchen counter. My world is crumbling in on me. pic.twitter.com/9dSg3rjMOn
— Bart Hanson (@BartHanson) January 4, 2024
Game of Gold Winner Mario Ho Recaps 2023
A wholesome message and a short montage of Maria Ho’s highlights from the year. We see many poker tables, a selection of high-priced cocktails, sportscars, and pools.
It never ceases to amaze how time continues to fly by at warp speed. It's an important reminder to slow down and savor the moments. When I reflect on the year, I’m so thankful to every person and every experience that made my 2023 so incredibly special. Here’s to more living and… pic.twitter.com/078Ck82ITv
— Maria Ho (@MariaHo) December 31, 2023
If you missed it, Maria also won GGPoker’s unique new show, where 16 pros duked it out in a team and challenge format. Second place was Josh Arieh, while Fedor Holz was third.
The final moments of Game of Gold were dicey.
Maria Ho holds and Daniel Cates has .
The blinds are 80k/160k + 160k. Both players have about 11 million chips to start the hand.
Preflop: Maria opens to 320k and Jungleman (Cates) 3-bets to 1.15 million. Maria calls and the pot is 2.5 million. King-high is still good against plenty of Jungle's bluffs, though she's not drawing to much. The pot could get bloated quickly and her equity is thin.
Flop: Seeing , Daniel Cates continues his line with a bet of 800,000. When Maria calls, the pot reaches 4.1 million chips. At this point, both players have about two pot-sized bets left, though Maria has about 500k more than Cates.
Turn: The turn is a , bringing Maria some equity that she desperately needed. It’s not much, but she picks up considerably more outs. While Jungleman holds on with his pair of sevens, Maria can hit any , , or .
Jungleman checks.
Lots of suspenseful music plays.
Maria announces “2.7 (million)” and cooly slides forward a stack. Cates checks his cards, shuffles some chips, and calls.
River: A hits the felt and it seems like the video editing team makes the music twice as dramatic. Cates shoves and Maria lets out a sigh, but it seems to be one of relief. Folding the King-high flush here would be quite a tight lay down, even though Cates could have the .
Maria started the heads-up play against Daniel Cates with more than twice as many chips. Eventually, she rivered a flush against Cates, whose alter ego was in full effect. For this game, he was Danny McFanny, who said epically after the match:
“I don’t know what just happened. You won my pot of gold”.
“I thought it was all good, then my lucky charms betrayed me themselves. She caught a fifth lucky charm, fifth, five clubs, a King of clubs. I thought I was the King of Clubs.”
He continued,
“Danny Mcfanny isn’t one to stand down from a challenge. You can count on that, as you can count on the sun rising and setting.”
Garrett Adelstein on His Return
At Bally Poker, Garret Adelstein won $132,600 over 6 hours of streamed poker and got to win with Jack-four. All-in-all, that’s quite a result, and Gman seems to think so too.
I had little clue how much poker I’d play after last week. Between running insane, the overwhelmingly kind/positive feedback, and mostly the joy of battling itself, I know there’s plenty left in the tank. Stoked to play where it all began: @CommerceCasino with @BallyLivePoker!
— Garrett Adelstein (@GmanPoker) December 18, 2023