Pizza, Pasta and Poker

Pizza, Pasta and Poker,
The private and public life of a professional poker player.

by Vince Burgio

Marvelous feeling, Vince says. Sitting there with $300,000 worth of hundred dollar bills stacked a yard wide, a foot tall, in front of you.

In the World Series of Poker (1994), at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, Vince took home $127,000 for winning the seven-card stud competition.

A few days later, he followed it up with a fourth-place finish in the main competition, the $1 million Texas Hold 'em tournament. That got him $168,000 more.

A week later, he traveled down to his home club in Bell Gardens, the Bicycle Club Casino, and won $164,000 in a poker tournament.

"I was hot," Vince says, in the understatement of the year.

This publication is only available in English.