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Today in the 3-Bet we Jason Mercier pinpointing a new arch nemesis, a very helpful tip for beginners about whittling away your stack and an odd comparison between Gilbert Arenas and Mad Marvin Rettenmaier.

1) Jason Mercier’s Lex Luthor: Phillip Gruissem

While dozens of poker pros started 2014 off in a notable hole thanks to busting the $100k Super High Roller at the PCA two or three times, at least Jason Mercier connected the dots on who to avoid at future high rollers:

Busted the 100k a few hrs ago. Lost a flip to Gruissem. That kid busts me more than any other player #NewNemisis just late regged 2k turbo— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) January 6, 2014

Just needs to work a bit on that hashtag #nemesishasane.

2) Don’t Be a Poker Whittler

It’s a simple idea but we like this piece of advice for new tournament players from Ellen Leikind of PokerDivas.com:

“In a poker tournament, each player receives the same amount of chips for a pre-determined amount of money. To win, they must acquire every chip on the table. Players need to make bold moves in order to accomplish this.

“But what we often see, especially among less experienced players, is people betting a little bit here and a little bit there, hoping not to lose too much in one hand. The next thing you know, half the tournament is over and most of their chips are gone.

“They have made too many small moves which prevent them from losing big but also from winning big. They’ve wasted hours trying to survive rather than to win, and they walk away with nothing. It’s called whittling away your chip stack, and it is typically a fear-based behavior.

“I played like this for years. It is natural for a lot of people, especially women, to protect what they have and be conservative.”

3) Arenas and Rettenmaier: Just a Pair of Comeback Kids

After discovering former NBA loose cannon Gilbert Arenas moving chips around in some high-stakes cash games at the PCA yesterday we naturally got a little curious about what he’s been up to lately.

Beyond finding out he put up some solid numbers playing in China, he’s planning a possible return to the NBA and had some experimental knee surgery in Germany, we also found out, thanks to Gilbertology.net, that he’s a basketball version of poker pro Marvin Rettenmaier:

“In some ways, Arenas was like the basketball player version of Germany’s highest ranking poker player, Marvin Rettenmaier. Before he became PartyPoker’s poster boy, Rettenmaier was the typical University student who made his way up the ranks of poker by amassing a decent bankroll in the online world.

“Just like Gilbert Arenas being a late pick of the Golden State Warriors in the 2001 NBA Draft (2nd round, 30th pick), Mad Marvin went under the radar in minor European tournaments, gaining solid notoriety after placing in the money board on a number of occasions …

“And as luck would have it, everything came into fruition in the summer of 2010 when Marvin Rettenmaier came out of nowhere and conquered the season 10 of the World Poker Tour World Championship. From there, Rettenmaier became a household name to die hard poker fans. He exuded an aura of intimidation to his peers, but still maintained his wholesome image on the felt.“

Who knew?