GPInterview: Griffin Benger | Shamballa Holla

He’s one of the best online poker players to come out of Canada and he has recently translated that success to the live tournament circuit. He’s energetic, always positive and is quite possibly the funnest poker player to follow on Twitter. As the World Series of Poker reaches it’s final hours, we sit down with Griffin Benger (Flush_Entity online) to talk poker, baseball, movies, and the prestigious Shamballa bracelet.

Your successes online have been very well documented, most poker fans would recognize the name Flush_Entity (over 4.5M in online tournament winnings) but you’ve been making so much noise on the live tournament circuit these past few months, when did you decide to play more on the live tournament circuit?

I found that I was successful in online satellites (for live events); the first year that I tried to qualify for the PCA, I won 7 packages so I was realizing that I kind of had a knack in satellites.

I just decided to try and qualify for many different EPT events and I did. I hadn’t had much experience in live tournament. The first tournament that I played was a 1K at the Venetian and I ended up chopping.

When I went out to Europe, it was a real test for me. It was kind of like a rite of passage.

We wrote a Fantasy Poker article about you as one to “Keep An Eye On” at EPT London. Although you didn’t end up cashing in London, you did make me look good by winning the High Roller event in Berlin…

It’s funny you mention that because London was sort of a coming out party for me, I did really well in the side events. I actually ended up bubbling the Main (ten from the money) but I ended up winning a 1K side event for 50K. It was my first live win, my first trophy, and my first picture.

The picture was actually rewarding because my friends and I have an inside joke when we win an online tournament where we take a picture of us with the winning hand from that online tournament.

I won the 1K event, I finished ninth in the 2K Turbo and was seventh in the 5K Turbo, it was great for my confidence, I was really starting to get a feel for it.

Then the momentum culminated in Berlin. I finished ninth in the 2K and then decided to play the High Roller. I actually had a moment where I almost chickened out actually. I went down to register an hour before it started and there were only 17 people registered. I started thinking, great, it’s going to be Phillipp Gruissem and Marvin Rettenmaier and Sorel Mizzi and Vanessa Selbst and I’m going to be one asshole that’s completely out of place.

I decided to take a shot and play it and was lucky to get a couple of good table draws which is really something that people don’t talk enough about, table draws are so important when playing in live tournaments, anytime you can really run up a stack and have a really weak player on your right, it makes a world of difference.

You’ve probably done more to promote Shamballa Jewels compared to any other person on planet earth, let’s talk about the Shamballa bracelet…

It’s funny, I didn’t even know I was going to win a bracelet until I got to heads-up play and then they showed me this bracelet and I really, really liked it, it was kind of sleek, this was kind of wearable and then I remembered all those times that someone would win an EPT and they would award the bracelet to the winners and then in the High Rollers event they would always say “he won x amount of dollars and, of course, the Shamballa bracelet”.

There is a big inside joke amongst many of the players over the Shamballa bracelet so I just started joking about it and talking about it and it started trending on Twitter.

And then Paul Volpe, who’s a good friend of mine, stole it from me. It was my last day in Monte Carlo and I was going to spend the day with my girlfriend and I just couldn’t find my bracelet. I had seen him that morning and I thought there is no way he would take it from me because he knew I had a big day planned.

Eventually, we headed out to the casino to tell him that I had lost it, ridding scooters in the pouring rain, I was almost crying because I used to be so forgetful … this was the culmination of my poker career and it was gone! I had the maids raid my room and Paul’s just in case I had left it in his room.

I was trying to contact him and he was trying to contact me but the internet was so bad and our phones weren’t working very well either so it’s a comedy of errors that lead to me eventually seeing him at the casino and him saying “I have it”, which was such a relief!

I have fun with it. Some people think that I may be an egomaniac (the way I talk about the Shamballa) but it’s for fun. I feel that being out here is a bit of a joke to me. With all the success I may have had, I really believe that so many of these players are so much better than me and being able to somehow win it (EPT Berlin High Rollers) was completely overwhelming and when something like that happens instead of being humble I joke about it because it’s funny to me. Sometimes that can rub people the wrong way but my real friends know that I’m just joking.

Let’s talk about the Toronto Blue Jays. You’re such a huge fan and so much was expected from the Jays this season, are you still on the bandwagon?

I never was off the bandwagon. I’m just a die-hard Jays fan, ever since I was a kid with the ’92 and ’93 wins. Ironically, my favorite pitcher in baseball the past 4-5 years has been Josh Johnson, so when we went out and got Johnson, I was super-excited.

Believe it or not, he ended up being my next-door neighbor. He’s just a 6 foot 7 monster, a behemoth, so it just added to my love for Josh Johnson.

As far as the team goes, I love Jose Reyes, I’ve always been a huge Jose Bautista fan – everything about him – his work ethic, his intensity, how he never backs down from a challenge … I could talk about the Jays all day. I mean Dickey being such a humanitarian, a class act, against-the-grain and then Kawasaki, how much fun is this guy! He’s brought a spark to the team, to the city.

I’m not a big monster movie guy but you’ve got me so pumped about seeing Pacific Rim. Is that the movie you’ve been most excited to see this summer?

For sure. I feel that Man of Steel was the one I was most looking forward to seeing because I’m such an advocate for Zach Snyder but then the whole Pacific Rim thing, I mean, I wasn’t a big monster movie guy but having said that, I’ve always had this thing about sea creatures, like the Lock Ness Monster or what they’re doing with the new Jurassic Park where they have water dinosaurs, just the idea of having these beasts coming out of the sea … plus with Guillermo del Toro directing, it’s going to be incredible.

We’re happy to report that Griffin was able to see Pacific Rim before leaving Vegas to head back home, here is his review below:

Pacific Rim was glorious! Unadulterated machine on monster madness! Highly recommend it. The perfect summer blockbuster!

— Flush_Entity (@GriffinBenger) July 13, 2013

Make sure to follow Griffin on Twitter, you won’t be disappointed: @GriffinBenger

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