Born in Rome, Italy, Dario Minieri got his competitive flair at a young age from trading card game Magic: The Gathering. He traveled the world playing tournaments until the day when the significantly more lucrative online poker prize pools caught his eye. Originally enrolled in University to study Psychology, Minieri dropped out to pursue poker as his main focus.
Honing his game playing Sit-and-Go tournaments, Minieri gained recognition for becoming the first PokerStars player to use Frequent Player Points to purchase a Porsche Cayman S. from the PokerStars store. In 2006, Minieri made waves at the 2006 World Series of Poker by making a semi deep run in the Main Event. Later that year, he finished third at the European Poker Tour event in Baden, taking home $160K for his efforts.
2008 proved to be Dario’s coming out party as he recorded over $1 million in live tournament earnings. His first score came at EPT San Remo, where he finished third for $454K. In June, he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet, shipping the $2500 Six-Max event for $528K. He capped off the year with another EPT final table, picking up $154K for third at EPT Warsaw. He kept up his winning ways in 2009 by once again finding success in Warsaw, this time taking down the High Roller event for $115K. All told, Dario has $1.7 million in live poker tournament earnings.
In his early twenties, Dario Minieri has already achieved a great deal at such a young age. Forever a student of the game, he says that his keys to winning are never talking about bad luck when he loses, believing in himself, and always remaining positive. When he’s not playing poker, Dario enjoys playing soccer, watching movies, and of course, driving his Porsche. The majority of the time, though, he can be found playing online as Team PokerStars Pro “Dariominieri.”
Click here for Dario Minieri’s interview with Poker News Daily.
