Luca Pagano (born July 28, 1978 in Treviso) is an Italian-born

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player who finished third place in the Barcelona Open, a European Poker Tour (EPT) 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 The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began on June 25, 2006 with satellite events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29. 40 more events in various ...

. He was a Team PokerStar PRO member for almost 15 years and, as of 2017, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,200,000.Hendon Mob tournament results
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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 An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

, TV commentator and host, main host of the Italian talent and reality sho
La Casa degli Assi
sponsored by PokerStars and co-owner of Italian professional

eSports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

''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 The Global Poker Index (GPI) is a leaderboard index that ranks over 450,000 live tournament poker players in the world. The GPI poker rankings are updated on a weekly basis. Players’ performances are assessed by their finishing positions in pok ...

has estimated his winnings in about $2,212,339.

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''" o
HendonMob
for a global earnings of $2,212,339.

Pokerstars Festival

PokerStars Festival since 2017 replaces the Italian Poker Tour format.

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.

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 Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

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.
QLASH
is one of the most promising professional organizations featuring well known players from the national and international scene in different videogames:

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthstone'' builds upon the existing lore of the ''Warcraft'' series by u ...

, StarCraft, FIFA, Fortnite
Clash Royale
Brawlstars, Vainglory, Call of Duty, Sim Racing 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

. In early 2019 QLASH introduced the QLASH House; a gaming house situated in Treviso, Italy. It houses many of their professional players.

Bibliography

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References

External links

Luca Pagano official site

PaganoEvents

Team PokerStars profile

BlondePoker.com interview

Team QLASH official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pagano, Luca Computer programmers Italian poker players Living people 1978 births