Dario Minieri

Dario Minieri (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdaːrjo minˈjɛːri]; born 1985) is an Italian professional poker player from Rome, Italy who won a bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker at the age of 23, is a member of team PokerStars, is an online poker player who was the first person to collect enough Frequent Player Points to buy an automobile with them, and is a three-time European Poker Tour final tablist.

Online poker

Minieri, a top ranked online professional poker player, who plays on PokerStars under his own name "Dariominieri", is known for being a high-stakes heads-up specialist with the site's highest rank of Supernova Elite and he became the first person ever to buy a car, a 2007 Porsche Cayman S, with 3 million frequent player points.

On January 27, 2008, Minieri won PokerStars $5,200 (winner-takes-all) Freezeout, a 20 player tournament in which the winner takes the $100,000 prize barring any deals. When the game was left with two players, known as heads-up play, Minieri and his opponent Isaac Baron requested that the game pause to look over a deal; the deal was offered based on their chip equity with $25,000 by rule set aside for the winner. Baron, who was down to a 3-1 chip deficit demanded a larger portion of the chop with the majority going to Minieri. When the deal was refused by Minieri, he went on to win the entire $100,000.

World Series of Poker

Minieri has cashed four times at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). At the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Minieri, who once was the chip leader coming off of day 3, finished in 96th place out of a field of 6358 entries.

The next year, Minieri won his first bracelet at the 2008 WSOP in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-handed event, beating out a field of 1,012 players, earning $528,418 his highest cash to date. In the final hand, with blinds 30000/60000 with a 5000 Ante, Minieri made a raise preflop to 125,000. His opponent Seth Fischer re-raised all-in and was called by Minieri's Q♠ Q♦ to Fischer's K♦ 10♦ on a board of A♥ A♦ 5♣ 2♣ 3♦.

World Series of Poker bracelets

European Poker Tour

At the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Baden, Austria (The Big Double 2006), Minieri finished 3rd in the €5,000 No Limit Hold'em event, earning €125,780 ($159,763).

At the EPT of Sanremo, Italy on April 5, 2008, Minieri held the chip lead at the beginning of the final table and finished in 3rd place for €287,600 ($454,366). In his final hand, Minieri was dealt Q♠ Q♦. Minieri raised to 100,000 and Jason Mercier of the United States re-raised to 340,000 with A♦ 4♦, and Minieri called. After the flop came down 7♥ 2♦ 8♦, Mercier checked, and Minieri bet 400,000. Mercier then check-raised all-in with his nut flush draw. Minieri quickly called while ahead in the hand, putting his tournament life at risk with the two queens. The turn was the 4♥, giving Mercier even more outs and the 3♦ on the river made Mercier the winning flush to eliminate Minieri. Mercier went on to win the event.

In 2008, Minieri made a second EPT final table at the event in Warsaw and again finished in 3rd place, earning €123,162 ($153,619).

As of May 2011, his live tournament winnings total $1,856,098. His 8 cashes as the WSOP account for $721,245 of those winnings. He currently ranks 5th among Italian poker players in all time live tournament earnings.