DAILY BUZZ: Cantu Taser, Vengrin Pageant Judge, Dwan Beats George

Jason Kirk | November 20, 2009

Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the entire internet for all the latest news in and around the world of poker. If it involves chips and cards, or people known to associate with chips and cards, we’re there.

Brandon Cantu takes his taser like a man

Cantu takes a taser for TASER

From the annals of charity poker tournament prop bets comes this video from Phil Hellmuth, shot at the TASER Foundation tourney that recently went down in Arizona with Hellmuth playing the host’s role. The video has a lot of set-up and starts to feel like it won’t be worth it, but then comes the great payoff of Brandon Cantu taking a taser in front of a crowd of poker players and hangers-on who are all chanting, “TASER! TASER!”

Hat-tip on this one goes to Pokerati, who says that Cantu was paying up on a prop bet he lost to Clonie Gowen at the tournament last year.

Corporate fringe benefits don’t look like this

Taking the odd taser shot to pay off prop bets probably wouldn’t be considered a side benefit of being a poker player, but judging a beauty pageant would definitely fall into that category - if you can get the work, that is. Luckily for Absolute Poker pro Matt Vengrin, he’s been hired on to lend a scrutinizing eye to the Miss California Teen USA pageant this weekend.

“As a poker player, I know how fierce competition can be,” said Vengrin. “Just like playing in the World Series of Poker, these girls are in for a grueling but fun weekend and I’m excited to be an integral part of the experience.”

Vengrin signed with Absolute this June, his reward for playing well enough to earn more than $2 million in online tournaments over the last two years.

Dwan crushes George on final day of Million Dollar Challenge

With the way Isildur1 has been spanking him lately on Full Tilt, it’s a good thing Tom “durrrr” Dwan ran good on the last day of has the Full Tilt Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge to help recoup some of his losses. After two days of five-figure swings and a relatively small total profit against two professional opponents, the third day of the challenge saw Dwan take amateur Sammy George for $750,000 to end the challenge on a high note.

Tom Dwan, Hammer Master

George started off well but had to rebuy when he ran his A-K into Dwan’s aces. Then the two players started playing “the 7-2 game,” with anyone who won a pot showing 7-2 getting $10,000. George managed to win a few good pots that way, but Dwan pulled off the coup of the night with the hand known to many as The Hammer. With about $130,000 in the pot and the board reading J A 6 3 3, Dwan moved all-in with 7 2 for $400,000; George held A 6 for two pair and would have won a million-dollar pot, but he elected to fold and gave Dwan the chance to show the spirit-crushing bluff.

“We’re playing the 7-2 game and the board has come very strong – he either had the nuts or nothing and I was so close to calling,” George said of the hand. “But you can’t in that situation – if I’d called and he has the nut-flush I’m an idiot, if I call and he has air I’m a hero. But I enjoyed my game and the way I played, I guess there are a few things I could tweak but not totally change. I’m a bit disheartened by the loss and I know a lot of people thought I would lose but when it airs people will see a different side to the result.”

With his small loss to Marcello “luckexpress” Marigiliano and his relatively small win against Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies figured in, Dwan’s total take for the three-day challenge was $790,000.

(Dwan ends Million Dollar Challenge in fine style - Matchroom Sport)

Canadian Olympic curling hopeful is online poker player

The Winnipeg Free Press featured a story earlier this week about 25-year-old Olympic curling hopeful Jason Gunnlaugson, who plays online poker to pay the bills while he tries to make his way to Vancouver for the upcoming 2010 Winter Games. Not only is the story a good read, but the writer seems to have a pretty good handle on the language of poker, too.

Gunnlaugson, he of the wild mop of hair and exuberant fist-pump, lives in a Winnipeg crash pad with five other 20-somethings and when he’s not throwing rocks and working on his plot to overthrow the old boys of curling, Gunnlaugson flops down in front of his computer and attempts to grind out a living playing online poker.

“It’s a bit of a different lifestyle but I’m basically in love with the game of curling. I want to spend as much time as possible playing and learning about it and to do that… well, the cards thing just came about because of the amount of time we have to take off to play. Most employers aren’t cool with that, so I had to find something on my own that was a financial fit,” said Gunnlaugson, who last weekend clawed his way through the pre-qualifying event in Prince George to grab a berth in the Road to the Roar Olympic qualifying event in Edmonton.

“I make a little bit of money. Nothing fancy. It kind of becomes like a normal job where you sit at the computer for a couple of hours and you make like an hourly wage. It’s better than anything else I could do.”

Gunnlaugson and his team are seeded last in the final tournament that will determine who becomes Team Canada for the curling competition next year in Vancouver.

(Curler is coming up aces - Winnipeg Free Press)

Poker: better for your job prospects than you may have believed

Contrary to what you’ve heard from your nagging relatives, it turns out that taking time off to play poker for a few years actually can land you a job.
Bloomberg took a look at the intersection of poker and finance today in an article that examines how suitable successful poker players are for jobs in the financial industry. With the success of so many players with financial backgrounds that’s not too surprising, but a few of the quotes in the story will definitely an eyebrow or two.

After the World Series of Poker started in Las Vegas four months ago, Options Group recruiter Simon Satanovsky said he received a hedge-fund request for online poker players with no financial experience. He wouldn’t identify the client. “Before, we were asking about GPA or the Math/Physics Olympiad,” Satanovsky, a former Russian national bridge champion, said in a telephone interview. “Now, we’re asking questions about poker successes.”

The article features plenty of input from Full Tilt pro Brandon Adams and even a few quotes from new world champ Joe Cada, who says he won’t be taking a job in finance anytime soon.

(Harvard Poker Pro Says Texas Hold’em Can Teach Traders To Fold - Bloomberg)

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