Max Pescatori

On the same day that Italy won the football World Cup in Germany, Max Pescatori, known affectionately as “the Italian pirate”, plundered over $680,000 and a gold bracelet from the World Series of Poker.

He was given his nickname because of the bandanas he has started wearing at the table; Pescatori was so fed up of people thinking he was French that he decided to wear the colours of Italy’s flag to make the point obvious. On that fateful night in July 2006, there was no mistaking his allegiance as Fabio Grosso scored the deciding penalty.

Pescatori was born in Milan and lived in Italy until he made the move to the United States aged 23. He did not speak a word of English but he knew how to play cards and that was enough for him. Growing up, he was skilled in many card games and when he was just 11 he won a trophy playing an Italian card game, Scopa.

No Limit Hold ‘em was rarely played in Europe when he was growing up but Pescatori did not need a map to find his way to the huge cache of treasure that could be won at this game.

After coming over to the States, the natural choice of residence for a promising card player was Las Vegas, Nevada. He worked on the famous strip by day and at night he would deliberately ignore the lure of nightclubs and sit at a table to brush up on his poker skills. He started by playing 7 Card Stud but soon moved to Hold ‘em when he saw the size of pots that he could win. In 1998 he met Valter Farina, the first Italian to win a WSOP bracelet, and the two hit off a great friendship with Farina agreeing to mentor Pescatori. In 1999 he turned professional.

His first tournament appearance came in 2002. Much like Italy’s disappointing showing in South Korea and Japan that summer, where they were eliminated in the first knock out round, Pescatori only managed to cash in some of the smaller tournaments.

He soon began to make friends in the poker world and immediately hit it off with fellow Italian Marco Traniello and his wife Jennifer Harman. Harman invited Pescatori to watch her play in an attempt to tutor him to the next level, which paid off handsomely for him.

Luckily Pescatori did not need to wait years for his next shot at glory and he started to win within months. In March 2003 he claimed two events at the World Poker Tour – Limit Hold ‘em and Limit Omaha – and in 2004 his game had developed greatly with two money finishes in the WSOP and a $100,000 win at the Legends of Poker WPT Season 3.

He continued to up the stakes and in 2005 cashed in six WSOP events and five times at the National Championships of Poker. However, it was not until 2006 that he won his first bracelet, beating Anthony Reategui and Mike Matusow, amongst others, in the final of the No Limit Hold ‘em event.

As of the start of 2007, Pescatori had over $1,500,000 in his tournament booty.