3-Bet: Catalin Pop Wins 888Live Poker Festival Barcelona High Roller; New $4 Billion Las Vegas Casino Delayed Until 2020 & Paddy Power Betfair to Enter DFS Market

3-Bet
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  • PG News May 21, 2017
  • 3 Minutes Read

In this edition of PokerGuru 3-bet, we begin with a familiar face on the 888Live circuit i.e. Catalin Pop claiming the 2017 888Live Poker Festival Barcelona High Roller. We also bring news about Malaysia-based Genting Group’s new $4 billion Resorts World Casino in Las Vegas that is likely to be delayed until 2020. Our third and final story covers Paddy Power Betfair`s foray into Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) with the company acquiring US-based DRAFT DFS site for $48 million.

 

Catalin Pop Wins 888Live Poker Festival Barcelona High Roller

A familiar face on the 888Live circuit, Catalin Pop claimed the 2017 888Live Poker Festival Barcelona title and the lion’s share of the €134,400 prize pool worth €40,000.

Pop had already emerged victorious in the 888Live Rozvadov Main Event earlier in February.

Final Table Recap

Notably at the start of the final table – Fraser MacIntyre and Sergi Escote were leading in stacks, however, Pop quickly took over the lead.

The first final table player to hit the rail was Germany’s Dominik Nitsche followed by Hampus Persson in eighth place.

Francois Evard finished in seventh place while Scotsman Gordon Huntly went out next at sixth place.

Pop was practically an unstoppable force by the time play got down to 5-handed and soon Francois Evard was seen making an exit in fifth place while Denmark’s Peter Jaksland fell in fourth place.

Down to three-handed play, Pop managed to river a superior full house with his king-four against Escote’s ace-deuce suited and the last local player and Supernova Elite for many years was left with less than five big blinds. Soon, Escote’s short stack was seen in the middle which was called by both players in the blinds. Pop flopped two pairs with jack-three suited to better the ace-queen suited of Escote.

Pop entered heads-up battle with a 5-to-1 chip advantage and sealed the title in just 15 minutes.

MacIntyre, the CEO of MainEventTravel, 888Live’s official travel partner for the festival, had to settle for another runner-up finish and collected €28,000 for his finish.

Catalin Pop
Catalin Pop

Final Table Results (€)

1. Catalin Pop – €40,000

2. Fraser MacIntyre – €28,000

3. Sergi Escote – €18,000

4. Peter Jaksland – €14,000

5. Francois Evard – €10,000

6. Gordon Huntly – €8,000

7. Oleg Egorov – €6,750

8. Hampus Persson – €5,500

9. Dominik Nitsche – €4,150

 

Genting Group’s New $4 Billion Las Vegas Casino Delayed Until 2020

Malaysia-based Genting Group’s new Resorts World Las Vegas Casino will be delayed further as construction will resume on the upcoming $4 billion project sometime in the third quarter of this year.

The $350 million land will be the first mega-resort to be built from the ground up on the Strip in a decade and is now scheduled to open sometime in 2020. The project has already been delayed multiple times due to slow start to construction, with the original opening planned for 2016.

Nevada gaming regulators gave the green light to the casino, which will sit on the north end of the Strip, in May of last year.

Since the Great Recession, Las Vegas has seen some of its casinos completely remodeled. However, the construction of a brand-new casino has been elusive.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Genting recently tweaked the design for Resorts World to make it more modern. The gaming floor has been slashed to 100,000 square feet and more than 3,000 rooms. A parking garage built to accommodate 3,000 vehicles has already been completed.

The Genting Group recently also announced the appointment of Edward Farrell, a casino industry veteran for three decades as president of Resorts World Las Vegas. Following the announcement, Farrell outlined plans for the property which will cater both to younger gamblers and the city’s Chinese and Chinese-American tourists.

“The initial drawing had a lot of traditional, older Chinese architecture and elements that were within it. The company has really taken a look at the market in Las Vegas throughout the past couple of years, and it has really shifted to something that’s much more modern,” said Farrell.

 

Paddy Power Betfair Acquires DRAFT DFS Site

In a major development, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair took a major step in the daily fantasy sports (DFS) market by acquiring the US-based DRAFT DFS site, which was founded by nine-year fantasy sports veteran Jeremy Levine for $48 million, according to a report in Forbes.

“It is a full acquisition of DRAFT by the Ireland-based bookmaking business and online betting operator. It is now expected that the company will double in size and to “increase its marketing spend by roughly 100x over what was spent last year,” according to Levine.

“I think (Paddy Power Betfair) saw our game and the kind of user experience and the team and realized we were in a really good position to quickly take market share,” Levine was quoted by Forbes.

Paddy Power Betfair plans expanding DRAFT’s reach beyond the 35 US states it currently serves and will enjoy a 95% market share due to the merger. However, Company’s CEO Breon Corcoran estimates that the substantial marketing investment will cause DRAFT to incur a $20 million operating loss during this financial year.

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