Card Player Podcast With Tony Dunst

Poker Stories is a new, long-form audio series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

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Age: 32
Turned Pro: 2006
From: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Live Tournament Earnings: $2.9 Million
Best Score: 2nd Place – 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event ($700,000)

The Highlights

On how video games turned him into an early entrepreneur…

“In [the video game] EverQuest, there was currency and there were items. I kind of figured out what these items were worth and turned myself into a wheeler and dealer. I would accumulate those items in the game and then sell them for real money on eBay. And that was… 18 years ago or something. At that time, the idea of selling something that only existed in a virtual world for real money was very foreign and strange. It seems so obvious and natural now, but at the time…”

On the reason why he used to wear suits at the poker table…

“I took a bunch of psychology classes in high school and college and they would tell you about the halo effect, when people are dressed in a formal way or wearing a uniform, there are all these really positive assumptions made about them. It’s an easier way to move through the world when people immediately make positive assumptions about you, or think, ‘I’m not in a place to question what that person is doing.’ 

On his $145,000 World Poker Tour win in the Caribbean…

“Yeah, that was sweet, but that was when I was in make-up, so I saw zero dollars of that. I was like, ‘Yay, I won a tournament! Here you go Mike [McDonald]. Here’s some of the money I lost back.’ But it was great to get my name on the WPT Champions Cup, and it did make it appear as though [the WPT] hiring me was a reasonable decision when I could actually win the damn events they were running.”

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