Play that hand: €10,000 and plum post in poker-night pot

DUBLIN:CANCEL YOUR trip to Las Vegas - if you play your cards right at a forthcoming poker night in Dublin, you might not only walk away with up to €10,000 in prize money, but you could also win a job.

Susquehanna International Group, a proprietary trading firm, is taking a novel approach to its graduate recruitment programme by holding a poker competition to attract up to six new assistant traders.

Despite the global financial crisis and the subsequent hiring freezes across the financial services sector, trader David Murtagh says the US financial services firm is having difficulty finding candidates of the right quality for its European HQ in Dublin - hence the use of the poker night as a publicity tool.

This will be the third time the firm, which employs 130 people in Dublin, has held such an event, and Murtagh says that people who are good at poker are often good at trading, as it is a similar skill-set.

The event, on the evening of July 17th in the Clarion Hotel in Dublin's IFSC, is open to people who are currently pursuing, or have obtained, a degree in mathematics, actuarial studies, physics, engineering, computer science or another quantitative discipline.

So far, 20 candidates have been invited to play "no limit hold 'em" poker, having passed an initial screening process.

While the plan is ostensibly aimed at graduates, Murtagh says Susquehanna will consider people with a couple of years' experience. Entry is open right up to the date of competition.