Player Focus: Dario Minieri

Dario Minieri is a young player who has made it very big in European online poker circles this year.

Mainly a cash game player on PokerStars he has recently started to focus on offline tournaments, and finished third (good for $159,763) in the European Poker Tour event at Baden recently. He also played in the World Series of Poker main event and was one of the tournament chip leaders for a while (see pic) but eventually finished in 543rd place.

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To illustrate just how active this guy is on PokerStars you only have to consider the number of Frequent Player Points (FPPs) he has earned – more than 3,000,000 – making him Stars’ very first player to cash in his points for a Porsche Cayman S. The 21-year-old is expected to take delivery of his new car any day now.

The Italian, who uses his own name on Stars ("Dariominieri"), accumulated the FPPs in just ten months. By Poker Verdict’s own calculations he would have needed to play three consecutive $30-$60 tables for 10-12 hours a day to rack up so many FPPs. Quite a feat!

He is also said to have played nine high limit multi-table tournaments (MTTs) at the same time which requires huge reserves of skill and concentration. Like many young players (including WSOP main event runner-up David Williams) he came to poker via an obscure strategy card game that is popular with teenagers called Magic: The Gathering.

If you come up against him on PokerStars you will have to square up to this extremely aggressive player. He is a steal King so be prepared to have him moving in on you in late position (possibly with any two cards) in the late stages of an MTT. If you want to give yourself a chance you will have to keep 're-popping' him by going over the top if you think he's stealing.

The PokerStars deal has allowed him to branch out more into the live world, and cashed again in last year's WSOP Main Event; eventually bombing out in 96th for $67,535. And April '08 has see his his biggest offline cash to date: finishing 3rd at the EPT San Remo for $454,366.


View Dario Mineiri's PVi Profile here


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