Poker Stories Podcast With Nick Petrangelo

Poker Stories is a long-form audio series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Age: 31
From: Feeding Hills, Massachusetts
Turned Pro: 2009
Live Tournament Earnings: $9.5 million
Best Score: 2nd Place – 2015 $100,000 Five Diamond World Poker Classic High Roller — $1,015,335

The Highlights

On why he chose poker as a career…

“Anyone that’s close to me would tell you that I live in extremes. Since I’ve been playing poker, it’s been all poker, all the time. Not as much time for friends and family. I was obsessed with golf, obsessed with hockey, but when I get to something where I realize my potential is capped… Once I realized I couldn’t be the best, I would move on to something else. I’m lucky that I found poker, where you don’t have any physical limitations, because you can only be so good at golf or hockey. I wasn’t built to be in the NHL, but with poker, you can always find a way to get better and compete. There’s really no ceiling. It’s very much effort based.”

On his motivation for playing…

“You can be dollar motivated, or you can [treat it like video game points], that just happens to be my approach to the game. It’s not intentional, it’s just natural for me. No matter what’s going on, when I’m playing, I’m just trying to make the best decision possible. In these tournaments, if you start thinking about the dollar value of the chips that you have, it can really mess with your mind. Some of these spots in a $100,000 buy-in when you are deep, your stack might be worth like $400,000 or more in real dollars. And you’re just about to three-barrel the big blind with some shitty hand and give someone your whole stack. You can’t think about that stuff.”

On getting slow-rolled in a six-figure pot…

“I got slow-rolled in a $140,000 pot in a cash game at the Bellagio last summer. I cold four-bet someone with 9-5 suited, and I bet all three streets. We both ended up rivering back-door flushes. I think my river bet was all-in for $50,000, and the guy tanked for about five minutes before calling me with the nut flush.”

You can check out the entirety of the interview in the audio player at the top of the page or download it directly to play on the go from iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

Catch up on past episodes featuring Daniel Negreanu, Nick Schulman, Chris Moorman, Bryn Kenney, Mike Sexton, Brian Rast, Jean-Robert Bellande, Scott Seiver, Greg Raymer, Maria Ho and many more. If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes automatically when they are released.