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We think we’re the bee’s knees when we win three $10 sit-n-gos in a row, so imagine how envious we were when we heard about Dario Minieri winning three big multi-table tournaments in one day. Remember, this is the guy that was the fi rst player ever to pick up a Porsche with his Frequent Player Points in PokerStars, even though he couldn’t drive. Talk about running hot! No wonder the kid wears a scarf all day long. Here’s the low-down from the bright young thing of the Italian poker scene.
BLUFF: Dario, we saw you had a very good end to 2007, winning three tournaments on one day. You also went deep in the Sunday Million…
DARIO MINIERI: Yeah, I won $155,000, so it was a good day, and I was very lucky to win three tournaments. I knew I could win one because they were tournaments with not too many people. So I expected to win one, but I could never expect to win three.
BLUFF: You live in Rome at the moment; have you thought about moving to Las Vegas?
DM: I grew up with my family in Rome, and I think that has been very important for me because it formed my character. No. I would never change my city for any other in the world. I like to travel a lot, but Rome is home for me, and I will always live here.
BLUFF: Did you start with Hold’em?
DM: No, I started with Italian Draw, which is like 5-Card Draw. It helped me a lot, I think, learning about the psychology of players, because the game is a lot more psychological than mathematical. Hold’em is both psychological and mathematical, but Italian Draw is purely psychological.
BLUFF: That’s interesting because a lot of what we’ve seen of your play has to do with you sensing weakness in your opponent pre-flop. You’re a very aggressive player pre-flop, but do you think Italian Draw helped with your post-flop play?
DM: Early on in my career I think I was much stronger pre-flop, and that was when I was a little less experienced. Now I think I can play the flop better, and I have played with some great players. I learnt a lot about the post-flop game from them, and I hope
I’m a good post-flop player now. In tournaments, though, I think pre-flop play is such an important part of the game.
BLUFF: How did you go from poker as a hobby to poker as a professional player?
DM: Well, I used to play a game called Magic the Gathering, which helped me a lot with the mathematical side of poker. The game teaches you to make a lot of calculations. I moved to poker after someone who used to play Magic the Gathering finished second in the World Series of Poker. His name was David Williams.
BLUFF: Did you know David Williams from the Magic scene?
DM: No, I didn’t know him personally, but I knew about him because we came from the same world. Everyone was talking about him when he finished second.
BLUFF: In Magic the Gathering, you really have to think about every move. You learn that every action has a consequence, and you try to calculate those consequences in advance. It’s similar to poker.
BLUFF: We know you got most of your media attention at the 2007 World Series, but that wasn’t the first time you played the Main Event, was it?
DM: No, I played in 2006 and cashed. I was really emotional when I played it the first time. I made a lot of mistakes as I didn’t have that much experience then, and my biggest problem was that I didn’t shift gears. Mind you, people say I didn’t do that in 2007 either! Last year taught me a lot about how to shift gears and to play differently. Sometimes you have to just wait hours because if you don’t shift gears, you’ll get busted. The 2006 World Series helped me realize that a lot.
BLUFF: And in 2007 those who watched the TV coverage had an impression that you were super-aggressive. You gained a lot of chips really quickly, took the chip lead, and then you had a real rollercoaster ride. Do you look back and think you could have played it differently?
DM: Maybe I would play a little differently on the TV table. I was playing too aggressively when people were just waiting for me. Perhaps I didn’t realize that at the time. I got lucky then because I won the chips back. Then I lost a couple of big pots with queens against A-K, and I was back down to a million. Yeah, I guess I would change the way I played that TV table. I don’t think I played well there.
BLUFF: Were you a nervous because of the cameras?
DM: Not really nervous, but I didn’t consider every point. I didn’t realize they would ask “How did he get so many chips? He has a lot of chips because he plays aggressively, so we should wait for him.”
BLUFF: You were quite recognizable with your Roma scarf and the comparisons to Harry Potter…
DM: Yeah, that was funny! I’d never watched the film, so it was great that people were coming up to me and saying it. They can say what they want, I don’t mind.
BLUFF: Do you play differently online, compared to live?
DM: I approach the two completely different, because in live tournaments people are more scared. If you lose in a live tournament you can’t just go and register for another one. Online, they are less scared of losing and if they know you’re aggressive they just show no fear. So live, I play much more aggressively, while online, I will play a little more cautiously, paying a little more attention to the players.
Mind you, I am not sure my live approach is the best. After the World Series my approach hasn’t been too good, and I’ve had to change it because everyone’s seen this tournament and I was playing tournaments after the World Series even more aggressively! People now know how aggressive I am, and they have less respect for my bets. What I do now is that sometimes I play less aggressively and instead pick better moments. I think there are times when it’s right to be attacking, like I was in the World Series, but I just need to know when to adjust.
BLUFF: After the World Series you were approached to join Team PokerStars. Tell us how that felt.
DM: Oh, that was a realization of a dream for me. When I started to play poker, I was only playing on PokerStars and I saw they had a team of poker pros. I would never have imagined I would join them, and when it did happen I just couldn’t believe it. It was incredible. I just couldn’t have dreamt of anything better in poker.
BLUFF: Have you managed to pick up some tips from the Team PokerStars players? Who have you learnt from?
DM: I haven’t had as much time to talk with them all as I’d like, but I do have a really interesting story from the EPT London. At this time, PokerStars had the World Championship of Online Poker running online, and I was playing on a table with Daniel Negreanu, who was also in London at the time. It was a Stud Hi-Lo event, and I played it really badly! Daniel told me he could see I didn’t have much experience – he was right, of course – and he said that, in 20 minutes, he could make me a hundred times better at the game. I ended up getting a bit lucky, and I actually lasted longer in the tournament than he did. I asked him to come to my room tell me what it was he could explain what he could teach me in 20 minutes, because it would be good for my game.
He said yes, which was really good of him. He came to the hotel, and I think I was a hundred times better in half an hour! (Laughs) I just remember I was really bad, I know that.
BLUFF: And of course, if you want to improve your post flop game in Hold’em, Daniel must be one of the best people in the world to learn from.
DM: Yeah, he was great, and I have to thank him a lot for that. I hope to have a chance to learn more about other games, because at the moment I am focusing only on No Limit Hold’em. At the moment, I don’t like the other games as much, but I hope to have chance to learn about them from Daniel, or maybe Greg Raymer who is an expert in a lot of games.
BLUFF: What kind of advice would you offer to new players who have seen a lot of aggressive players like you, Annette Obrestad or Gus Hansen, and want to play this style?
DM: When you start, I wouldn’t advise anyone approach the game like this! I think before you play aggressive, you have to learn how to play tight, and then you can change your game. To play this aggressive style well, you have to understand a lot more about the game generally, and you can learn this when you play tight. When I started, I played tight, so I’d advise new players do the same. Study the players at the table, watch those who you think are the better players – sometimes watch other games as well. You should also open up the bigger games online and watch those players. You can learn a lot from those guys.
One other piece of advice I would give new players is to forget about luck. You hear new players worrying all the time, “Am I lucky or am I unlucky?” and it’s stupid. In the long run, poker isn’t about luck. I think it’s better if new players don’t think about luck at all. Every time you lose, try to learn from it. I do this even now.
BLUFF: Are Italians as passionate about poker as they are about their football?
DM: Oh yeah! The people in Italy are really competitive. They approach every sport the same way.
BLUFF: You’re pretty famous for buying a Porsche with your Frequent Player Points on PokerStars. What’s next on the shopping list?
DM: Well, I chose the Porsche even though I can’t drive because it would motivate me to get my driving license. I’ve started to practice now and I hope to get it when I am back in Rome.
I don’t know what I want next, but I think I might reach 7 or 8 million points (the Porsche cost 3 million) and then ask if I can get something special. I might ask them if I can get a Ferrari. That would be funny. I love cars and I really want to be good driver. When I was a kid I was really passionate about playing car racing games, so I’d just like to have a nice car I could get into and just be a good driver.
BLUFF: What’s the best bluff you ever made at the poker table, and which is the best in life?
DM: In poker, it was a big cash game in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. It was the first time I had been to Vegas and I was playing at a $100/$200 table with Phil Laak. I remember he raised pre flop, so I reraised. He then check-raised me on the flop and I reraised him with nothing. I remember it was a $22,000 reraise on the flop and that was a lot of money for me then. I just wanted to prove myself in this game and play with the best players.
BLUFF: Did you show the bluff?
DM: Yeah, I did! I wasn’t really worried about the money. I was trying to have as much fun as I could, so I showed it. He didn’t say very much.
In life, leaving my studies was the biggest risk. Studies were important to me, but I had to stop to pursue poker. If I didn’t make it as a poker player, this might have been a really big risk. I’d have had to go and find a new job.
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