Coach Nick Petrangelo CRUSHES Poker Series for $1.8 Million
Nick Petrangelo absolutely smashed the 2022 Stairway To Millions series.
Upswing Poker’s resident multi-table tournament expert crushed his way through the high-stakes series, clinching the Stairway To Millions title with a win in Event #8: $100,000 NL Hold’em on Thursday night. The finale in a series of eight ascending buy-in tournaments at PokerGO Studio at the Aria in Las Vegas saw Petrangelo top a field of 19 entries, coming away with a $1,026,000 payday.
The Stairway To Millions ran as an eight-event series, starting with a $1,000 buy-in and ending with Thursday’s $100,000 championship. Players could enter the series in any of the eight events, and cashing in an event automatically qualified players for the next, higher buy-in tournament.
Petrangelo cashed in four events in the series, winning the final two tournament at the highest stakes:
- Event #4: $8,000 NL Hold’em (5th – $35,840)
- Event #6: $25,000 NL Hold’em (2nd – $175,000)
- Event #7: $50,000 NL Hold’em (1st – $567,000)
- Event #8: $100,000 NL Hold’em (1st – $1,026,000)
More High-Stakes Success for Petrangelo
Petrangelo’s four cashes in the Stairway To Millions adds $1.8 million to his career tournament earnings, which now stand at over $23 million according to the Hendon Mob database. The Upswing Poker coach extended his lead in the 2022 PokerGO Tour leaderboard standings with the win.
PokerGO asked Petrangelo if winning ever gets old. Petrangelo, who notched his fourth career seven-figure cash in Event #8, gave the following answer:
“No. It’s actually been a while since I had one like this. Well, I guess in the fall I did well in a couple, but we play so much now that my memory is pretty short. Every time you win, it feels great. I was looking forward to this series, and I’m looking forward to playing a lot of live [poker] in general this year. So no, the short answer is that it never gets old. It’s awesome. I’m really happy and fortunate that I’m running well.”
Petrangelo won Event #7 despite being down to just one big blind at one point. His chip stack never dwindled that low in Event #8, where Petrangelo started pulling away during six-handed play.
Check out the following hand history that ended with Petrangelo taking a chunk out of David Peters’ stack:
Image courtesy of PokerGO Tour
The final three in the Stairway To Millions finale came down to Petrangelo, Sean Perry, and David Peters. Petrangelo went into three-handed action with more than half of the chips in play.
That chip cushion gave the high-stakes crusher Petrangelo plenty of room to work with against a pair of elite-level opponents. Peters eventually bowed out in 2nd place, and Petrangelo clinched the series championship.
Petrangelo posted a second-place finish and two wins in the final three events of the Stairway To Millions, no small feat at buy-ins of $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000.
Those three tournaments included some of the toughest fields imaginable on the live high-stakes tournament scene. but Petrangelo navigated through those lineups for one of the most impressive runs of his career.
“Confidence in poker is a huge thing,” Petrangelo told PokerGO. “It’s a real thing because oftentimes you can get a little gun-shy when you’re running bad – if you’re running big bluffs and everyone always has the nuts, or vice versa if you’re making calls and you’re just running into it all the time.”
“Sometimes it can kind of mess with your head a little bit and make you second guess yourself. When everything is working out and things are going well and you’re making big hands and the bluffs are getting through, it just helps you play better. It’s as simple as that.”
Petrangelo is the lead instructor behind the Winning Poker Tournaments and High Stakes MTT Sessions courses at Upswing Poker. Look for a comprehensive cash game course coming from Petrangelo at Upswing Poker in the coming months.
