About Vincent Burgio

Name	Vincent Burgio
Current Residence	West Hills Calif.
Birth Place	Kansas City Missouri, US

Vince Burgio has made himself a fixture in the poker world, certainly by virtue of his expert play, but even more so via his insightful writings on the game, including his regular column for CardPlayer magazine.

Part of Vince's talent as a poker journalist has always been a great knack for remembering and recording the pearls of wisdom that come from the mouths of poker's greats, like this from Tom McEvoy: "There is more to poker than life." Or this, from Robert Turner: "A person should gamble every day, because think of how bad it would be to be walking around lucky and not know it."

Burgio discovered tournament poker in 1987. "The first week I played in a tournament I won $8,000 at the Hilton," he relates. "Two weeks later at the Riviera I won $54,000." A short time thereafter, Vince sold the construction business he owned and became a full-time professional poker player.

Money is not his only motivation for playing tournament poker. He loves being on television, and revels in the celebrity that accompanies televised appearances. He also appreciates that the televising of poker tournaments has legitimized his profession to many in his native Missouri.

Burgio is on record as saying his greatest strength as a tournament player is that he can maintain his burning ambition to win, even when it appears all but hopeless that the cards will cooperate. That determined attitude has stood him in good stead; he was named "Best All-Around Player" at the 1992 Four Queens Classic, has a gold bracelet from his 1994 World Series of Poker win in Seven-Card Stud Split and, in general, has a very distinguished record of wins.

These days, Paradise Poker sponsors Vince and he can often be found on the Paradise Poker Web site playing under the moniker "Invincible," as well as on their "Tournament Champions" page.

Of late though, Vince has decided to specialize in the larger buy-in event tournaments. He knows what it takes to succeed in those tournaments, too: "What makes me a good tournament player is that I am able to get banged, knocked down, get up, get knocked down again, go to bed at night and wake up the next day and say I'm going to do it all again." Just don't bet your bottom dollar on Vince Burgio getting knocked down every time.

Trivia

• Columnist for CardPlayer Magazine
• Graduate of the University of Missouri
• Married with four daughters
• Inducted into the Seniors Poker Hall of Fame
• Author of the book Pizza, Pasta, and Poker