Famous Player 'TASED'

Recently, I went to Phoenix to watch the New York Giants play in the Super Bowl. No wait, that's not right! Actually, I did recently watch the Giants play in Phoenix, and it was a big game between Division leaders, but I was 10 months too late for the Super Bowl. In fact, I was in Phoenix to emcee a charity tournament for the TASER Foundation for Fallen Officers, which supports officers and/or the families of officers who have been hurt or killed in the line of duty. We raised almost $500,000 with our poker charity event that was held at Fort McDowell Casino. That's pretty good in this economy! This tournament was unique in that we had two tournaments on Friday with smaller buy-ins, and a VIP tournament on Saturday for the celebrities and high rollers, and we took the last three players from each event and combined them for the finale. I invited a few friends to attend the event, and I want to thank them for coming out: Layne Flack, Todd Brunson, Brandon Cantu, Jeff Madsen, Clonie Gowen, and McClain Karr.



After Cantu busted out of the tournament, he opted not to rebuy, and stood up to leave. That's when Gowen grabbed the microphone from me and announced, "Brandon, I will buy you back in for $1,000, but you have to make a last-longer bet with me, and the loser gets TASED!" Cantu accepted the terms, and the bet was on! At this point, the focus was on these two players, and Cantu was all in and rebought several times. He was all in with Q-3 (busted and made a rebuy), 8-6 (busted and made a rebuy), Q-3 (busted and made a rebuy), J-3 (he doubled up), and then A-A, when he won a pot so big that he took the chip lead! At the end of the rebuy period, Cantu had 75,000 in chips and Gowen had 15,000.

Gowen's demeanor took a serious hit about then! When she made the bet, Gowen assumed that she was a big favorite, because Cantu is known for his very fast play, which is conducive to going out early or having a massive chip lead. However, Cantu slowed way down and even folded A-Q and 7-7 before the flop for a single raise. Cantu was playing for his life! Gowen, meanwhile, also was playing her hardest, and you could see the stress on both of their faces!

As time passed and the field was thinned from 123 down to 30 players, we hit the final three tables and Cantu was randomly drawn to sit on Gowen's left. It seemed like there were 150 people surrounding their table, watching the two of them battle it out. With the blinds at 3,000-6,000, Gowen moved all in for her last 13,000 or so, Cantu called, and Dallas Cowboys legend Ed "Too Tall" Jones called. The flop was A J J, Too Tall checked, and Cantu checked. The turn was the 5 and the river was the 10. Cantu flipped up an ace, but Gowen flipped up the J 9 to collect the pot and stay alive! Gowen now had 42,000 in chips and Cantu had 60,000.

Now, "Wolf" from American Gladiators showed up with a tape recording - which I played over the microphone - of the awful buzzing sound of a TASER to remind Gowen and Cantu what they were dealing with. I believe that Cantu and Gowen were trying as hard as they possibly could in this tournament, as both of them were dreading the possibility of being TASED.

With 14 players left - and 13 getting paid - Cantu lost most of his chips, and then the following hand came up. With the blinds still 3,000-6,000, Cantu had 10,000 in chips and three more hands before he would be in the big blind. That's when he decided to move all in with K-3 offsuit, and Brunson called from the button with 10-9. The board came down A-10-7-5-8, and Cantu was out on the bubble (one out of the money)! At press time in early December for this issue of the magazine, Cantu was to be TASED in mid-December at Bellagio, and a video of it was to be put up on YouTube.com.



Let's take a closer look at this hand. Did Cantu have to move all in? No way; he could have waited two more hands, and then posted his big blind on the third hand. To me, it is an easy fold. I mean, what are the chances that K-3 would win the pot? When Cantu moved all in, he had to worry about the two players behind him, and the two blinds. I would much rather take my chances on one of the next two hands, and if they were bad, I could always fold them and move all in on the third hand in the big blind. Plus, there was some chance that Gowen would go broke during one of those hands. Cantu was pretty bummed out over losing the bet, but on the plus side, I'll bet a million people will view the YouTube.com video, and that really is a good thing for him, isn't it?