Luca Pagano


Luca Pagano is an Italian-born poker player who finished third place in the Barcelona Open, a European Poker Tour event, in 2004. Since then he has reached six more EPT final tables, finishing in the money 20 times, placing him top of the EPT All-Time Leaderboard. He has also placed in two events at the 2006 World Series of Poker.
He was a Team PokerStar PRO member for almost 15 years and, as of 2017, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,000,000.

Biography

Pagano attended the information-science branch at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice; quickly his managerial skills took over and the nightlife family-run business was profitably administrated.
The big love for poker comes a little later, during a trip in Slovenia where he played a game in the Casino of Nova Gorica.
He has been a poker professional since 2004, year in which he scored the third place at the EPT Barcelona Open. This rising career takes him to play in the major tournaments having places in the most eminent cities, so that PokerStars chooses to make him the perfect Italian testimonial of the Team Pro. Pagano and PokerStars parted their ways in May 2017, consensually.
Pagano adds to his palmares many successes and builds up a very solid bankroll, rapidly becoming the player with the most in the money placements in all of Italian history.
Together with poker, Pagano is an entrepreneur, Angel Investor, TV commentator and host, main host of the Italian talent and reality show , sponsored by PokerStars and co-owner of Italian professional eSports Team QLASH.

European Poker Tour

In the European Poker Tour, Pagano gained 20 ITM placements with 7 Final Tables. Despite the strong perseverance, he never scored any first place; his best EPT result is third place in Barcelona in 2004.
On September 11, 2008, Pagano was awarded by the European Poker Tour Awards as "The Player of the Year".
Pagano holds the first position in the EPT All-Time Leaderboard with 5.500 points, right before French player Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, and holds the second position in the EPT ITM Rank Score - he is the first, however, among Italians; the Global Poker Index has estimated his winnings in about $2,212,342.

Date

City

Event

Position

Prize
September 18, 2004 BarcelonaEPT Barcelona €1,000 Main Event$24,500
February 16, 2005 DeauvilleEPT Deauville €2,000 Main Event$17,492
March 10, 2005 VarsaviaEPT Vienna €2,000 Main Event14°€5,750
September 16, 2005 BarcelonaEPT Barcelona €1,000 Main Event24°€7,800
January 19, 2006 CopenhagenEPT Copenhageh DKr 30,000 Main Event24°DKr 47,776
October 26, 2006 DublinEPT Dublin €5,000 Main Event13°$25,563
October 30, 2007 DublinEPT Dublin €7,700 Main Event24°€10,210
February 19, 2008 CopenhagenEPT Copenhagen DKr 47,750 Main Event27°DKr 84,346
April 12, 2008 Monte CarloEPT €10,000 Monte Carlo Grand Final$533,253
March 10, 2009 DortmundEPT Dortmund €5,000 Main Event$198,900
April 28, 2009 Monte CarloEPT Monte Carlo €10,000 Main Event55°€31,000
October 20, 2009 VarsaviaEPT Warsaw PLN 25,000 Main Event$128,930
December 1, 2009 PragueEPT Praga €5,000 Main Event€100,000
January 11, 2010 Paradise IslandEPT PCA World Cup of Poker NLH$2,000
January 20, 2010 DeauvilleEPT Deauville €5,000 Main Event72°€10,900
May 1, 2010 Nova GoricaAll Stars of Poker €5,000 NLH€220,000
August 11, 2010 TallinnEPT Tallinn €4,000 Main Event26°€8,000
August 28, 2010 VilamouraEPT Vilamoura €5,000 Main Event52°€7,263
December 13, 2010 PragueEPT Praga €5,000 Main Event43°€10,000
March 20, 2011 HinterglemmEPT Snowfest €3,500 Main Event50°€6,000
January 7, 2012 Paradise IslandEPT PCA $10,000 Main Event30°$46,000
January 31, 2012 DeauvilleEPT Deauville €5,000 Main Event€110,000
October 10, 2013 LondonEPT UKIPT £10,000+300 NL High Roller£60,930
February 14, 2016 DublinEPT €50,000+300 Main Event17°€25,820
December 12, 2016 PragueEPT €2,000+200 Eureka high Roller83°€4,825

Italian Poker Tour

On August 1, 2011 wins for the first time the Italian Poker Tour Sanremo step, gaining a trophy and €210,000 of prize.
As May 2017, at the time of the split from PokerStars, he holds the 8th place in the "All Time Money List" of , for a global earnings of $2,212,342.

Date

City

Event

Position

Prize
September 23, 2010 Nova GoricaIPT Nova Gorica €2,000 Main Event12°€8,200
July 28, 2011 SanremoIPT Sanremo €2,000 Main Event€210,000
April 29, 2013 SanremoIPT Sanremo €5,000 Main Event€8,000
November 30, 2014 SanremoIPT Sanremo Grand Final €900 Main Event20°€2,400
October 21, 2015 MaltaIPT Malta €1,000 Main Event87°€2,210
May 15, 2016 Saint-VincentIPT St-Vincent €1,000 Main Event€5,500

Pokerstars Festival

PokerStars Festival since 2017 replaces the Italian Poker Tour format.

Data

City

Event

Position

Prize
January 28, 2017 LondonPokerStars Festival £990 Main Event104°£1,690

World Series of Poker

Pagano's best placement in the World Series of Poker was in 2006, in the $1.500 Seven Card Stud event, where he reached the 40° place.

Data

City

Event

Position

Prize
June 28, 2005 Las VegasWSOP $2,000 Main Event56°$3,945
July 5, 2006 Las VegasWSOP $1,500 7 Card Stud Main Event40°$2,610
June 18, 2008 Las VegasWSOP $1,500 Main Event149°$3,340

Poker related activities

Co-hosted, together with sport commentator Giacomo Valenti, the famous TV show "Poker1Mania", aired, from 2007 to 2013, late night on Italian public television; the show was the first of its kind featuring the professional game of poker in a less technical language and earned a big audience consensus.
Organizes poker events by the Venice Casino, by the detached branch Ca' Noghera, by the Casino Sanremo, Casino Saint-Vincent, Aosta Valley and Nova Gorica.
In mid 2014 he hosted the first edition of talent and reality show La Casa degli Assi, original format by PokerStars produced by Magnolia Italy; this reality was aired for the first time on a terrestrial satellite TV channel and secondly re-aired on the public television, at night.
In March 2015 Luca Pagano hosted the second edition of the talent show, aired late night on public television.

eSports

In late 2016 Luca Pagano announced his entry in the electronic sports frontier with the creation and co-owning, with professional poker player Eugene Katchalov, of a professional team in Italy.
is one of the most promising professional organizations featuring well known players from the national and international scene in different videogames: Hearthstone, StarCraft, FIFA, Fortnite, Clash Royale, Brawlstars, Vainglory and more. In much less time the team has been granted with important recognition in the gaming scene. QLASH is also the first professional Italian team to join the prestigious Dreamhack in Austin, with former member Simone "VKing" Larivera ranking a stellar Top20 position in Hearthstone.