Team UB signs up Brandon Cantu

Ultimate Bet, which constitutes one-half of the CEREUS Network, has signed up World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Brandon Cantu as the latest member of Team UB. He can be found playing under the screen name “brandon cantu” on the USA-friendly site.

Cantu burst on to the live poker scene by winning a USD 1500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament during the 2006 WSOP for USD 757,000. He stormed through the 2,776 player field, and a final table which also included Carlos Mortensen. He finished 20th in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for USD 257,000 and has a total of eight in the money finishes in the Las Vegas tournament series. Cantu is also a World Poker Tour (WPT) event winner, having taken down the Season VI Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament for USD 1 million. In that event, Cantu defeated WSOP Stimulus Special winner Steve Sung heads-up and squeaked by John “The Razor” Phan and Jennifer Harman at the final table. He’s one of only a handful of players to have won WSOP and WPT events.

“This is an exhilarating time for Team UB. We’re constantly on the lookout for poker players who have real integrity, unquestionable talent, and an incredible passion for the game and we’ve found it all in Brandon Cantu,” Ultimate Bet Card Room Consultant and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke said in a press release. 

Cantu’s poker resume also includes a victory in a USD 300 buy-in tournament held as part of the 2006 Ultimate Poker Challenge for USD 9,000 and a runner-up showing in the Scotty Nguyen Poker Classic USD 1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event in 2007.

Cantu will be donning Ultimate Bet gear in this year’s tournament series, including the Main Event, which kicks off on July 3 with the first of four starting days. In a trend that began last year, the 2009 WSOP Main Event’s final table will once again be pushed back until November in order to coincide with television coverage on ESPN. Among those in the field also sporting Ultimate Bet gear will be Duke and Phil Hellmuth. The former finished as the runner-up to comedian Joan Rivers in the finale of NBC’s second season of “Celebrity Apprentice.” The reality show helped raise USD 730,000 for Refugees International, Duke’s chosen charity. Hellmuth is an 11-time WSOP bracelet winner, the most all-time.

Team UB also includes online poker aficionado Adam “Roothlus” Levy, blackjack expert “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Gary “Debo34? DeBernardi, Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Tracy “Fatcats” Scala, and Tiffany Michelle. The latter was the last woman standing in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, where she earned USD 334,000 for her 17th place. Scala won the first season of Ultimate Bet’s “Best Damn Poker Show,” which airs on Fox Sports Net and recently completed its second season. Patrick Karst won the series’ newest installment.

Ultimate Bet is fiercely qualifying its members to head to the 2009 WSOP Main Event. To date, it has stamped the entry forms of 113 players to the USD 10,000 buy-in tournament. A 50 Package Guaranteed event will take place this Sunday, that is June 21, at 5:30 p.m. ET. The tournament boasts a USD 530 buy-in and a bevy of satellites are available.

Players who qualify through Ultimate Bet and win the WSOP Main Event by wearing the site’s gear at the final table will qualify for an extra USD 10 million prize. Online qualifiers will also receive 15 per cent off their stay at the MGM Grand and free shuttle service to and from the Rio, and will be included in the exclusive guest list for the Ultimate Bet party at Studio 54 on June 29. Finally, players will receive access to the Phil Hellmuth Suite at the Rio to unwind during breaks at the Main Event.

Leonardo DiCaprio Starring in Online Poker Movie

Move over, “Titanic,” there’s a new sheriff in town. Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio will star in an untitled film about internet gambling outfits in Costa Rica, according to the Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly.

The screenplay will be written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who both served in the same capacity in the 1998 film “Rounders,” which drew many of today’s poker prodigies to the game. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), “Rounders” marked the first official writing credits for Koppelman and Levien. The duo has also teamed up with DiCaprio to bring “Beat the Reaper” to the big screen. The film, which will be released next year, has the following plot according to IMDB: “ER doctor Peter Brown’s life is turned upside down when he crosses paths with a mobster who appears to know him from his former life as a hitman.”

No release date has been given for DiCaprio’s online poker movie. An article on MTV.com noted that DiCaprio’s plate is quite full: “DiCaprio has an enormous list of films in pre-production. For the time being, at least, he’ll be working on Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception.’ Whenever he’s finished with that, he will probably have developed five more projects.” IMDB notes that DiCaprio has 21 films in development.

Whether the film will focus on online poker, casinos, or sports betting remains to be seen and various websites pitch the movie in several different ways. Tokwiro-owned online poker rooms Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are both based in San Jose, the Central American country’s capital city. A report by CBS News program “60 Minutes” identified the offices of the sites as being located in a “strip mall.” Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker comprise the CEREUS Network, which was formed in November.

Action Poker, the flagship site of the network of the same name, has offices in Costa Rica. Joining the site in the tropical nation is Doyle’s Room, which opened the 2009 calendar year by jumping to the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network. Ten-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Doyle Brunson, whose “Texas Dolly” moniker has made him one of the industry’s foremost faces, is the site’s namesake. Also holding a presence in Costa Rica is PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site. According to PokerScout.com, which ranks online poker site traffic, PokerStars has a seven-day running average of 22,000 cash game players. It happily accepts customers from the United States.

“Rounders” starred Edward Norton and Matt Damon. The movie was released five years before Chris Moneymaker became a household after the Tennessee accountant defeated Sammy Farha in the 2003 WSOP Main Event. Since then, Koppelman and Levien have kept their love for poker alive, teaming up for ESPN’s short-lived series “Tilt,” which starred Michael Madsen as Don “The Matador” Everest. “Tilt” premiered in 2005, ran for one season, and featured appearances by poker superstars including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, and T.J. Cloutier. Negreanu is fresh off a cameo in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

Finally, Koppelman and Levien wrote “Oceans Thirteen,” which came out in 2007. It was the third installment of the franchise, which stars Damon, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts. “Oceans Thirteen” returned to its roots in Las Vegas as the team sought revenge on casino owner Willy Blank (played by Al Pacino). The movie also stars Don Cheadle, who founded Ante Up for Africa along with Norman Epstein and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke.