Nick Petrangelo Finds his Home at ARIA

Nick Petrangelo made his Poker Masters entrance today in the $25,000 Event 5 after a few days on the bench. The late arrival was planned by Petrangelo, who prefers to only play the highest stakes events in the world. Petrangelo shipped his second World Series of Poker bracelet this summer in the $100,000 High Roller and cashed in Super High Roller Bowl.

A limited schedule allowed Petrangelo to focus on what he plays best and that is the High Rollers, especially the ones at ARIA. Petrangelo won two $25,000 High Rollers at ARIA and took third in another. To close the calendar, Petrangelo placed third in the WSOP $50,000 High Roller.

“This summer, I played a lot of the big stuff, I didn’t play any of the smaller stuff,” Petrangelo said. “So I played here a lot. I did a lot of the $25ks and played a lot of the High Rollers. It’s probably the lightest schedule I’ve ever played in terms of the number of events. I think I only played 15 events and the big stuff. It was a good summer, I think I’ll do that in the future.

Petrangelo bubbled the Big One for One Drop to close his campaign and recuperated with some planned time away from poker. Once back, Petrangelo jumped into the High Roller action in Barcelona and continued his strategy of playing just shorthanded, high buy-in events.

“Even in Barcelona just now, I skipped the Main Event. I think getting used to playing shorthanded, big buy-ins with the same player pool, we’re all friends. From the pros to the guys who are playing for fun, it’s been the same group for the last four or five years.”

The atmosphere in High Rollers was compared by Petrangelo to a “home game” and says he no longer enjoys the grind of playing events with a sub five-figure buy-in level.

“Take that to a $5K at the World Series, you’re playing nine-handed, everyone’s grumpy, super serious, not a nice atmosphere at the table,” Petrangelo lamented. “I just don’t enjoy that much anymore which is too bad. I enjoy this as much as I ever have and the smaller stuff feels like a chore to be there.”

High Rollers are on the menu at all times in the PokerGO Studio at ARIA and Petrangelo finds himself home among colleagues. Today, Petrangelo sits next to Seth Davies and Koray Aldemir, both of whom he owns plenty of experience against.

“I just love playing at ARIA,” Petrangelo beamed. “I love the structures, I love the guys that play here. The staff is amazing. I would come here if this wasn’t a specific series. If it was just a couple tournaments in a row, I would come. It’s fun that we’ve made different events like Poker Masters that gives a little bit of an added fun atmosphere.”

Subscribe to watch Wednesday’s Poker Masters $25,000 No Limit Hold’em final table stream on PokerGO, along with the rest of the highest stakes week of the year. Click here for more information on Poker Masters and here for more information on the High Roller of the Year race.