Marseille. Its port, its football club and … its poker players. Under the watchful eye of the Good Mother grows a new generation of online poker players, PokerNews has met with one of the most worthy representatives: Anthony Giangrasso alias ‘Panisson’.
It’s on the Big Blue Anthony grew up, discovered poker at a young age by watching his father while exchanging notes in francs at poker parties that closed would surely not deny Marcel Pagnol.
Panisson an early passion for poker
It is also not a coincidence that Anthony shares a kinship with the name of one of the unforgettable hero of the trilogy of Marseilles Provençal poet. “My father made ??’panisses’, a specialty of Marseilles. We started call him by that nickname and I became ‘Panisson’, the small Panisse … “he reveals.
“I supervised the parties, at the age of five, six years. I was very young, but that’s where I knew the game and I liked it,” remembers there. “I started playing small amounts to eleven, twelve, and I started to play games not very expensive.”
Grinder online, a permanent sprint
Times have changed and at age 27, now lives comfortably Panisson this passion became his profession. “It’s been five years since I saw online poker. The first two years too, because I do not thing materialize maximum “in stagnant for micro-limits.” I started with a bankroll, then I’d hardly call that not even a bankroll … We started with crumbs! ”
The crumbs that have attracted enough pigeons to enable it to settle at levels much higher altitude, “I had a very good first year and it has been five years since I saw online poker. The first two years too, because I do not materialize thing up. limiting myself to the microphones.
Now it’s been two years and it is not obvious, do not believe that things are very easy. “.
To live online poker, do not be idle indeed, the pace of life grindeurs may discourage less resilient in what looks more like a sprint than a long continuous peaceful march: “I play about sixty hours per week eight to ten hours a day with a rest day. ”
This results in hyperactivity virtual one of the largest volumes of play at the national level, with all the bonus points races and the accompanying “this represents between 50,000 and 60,000 hands in the months reasonable, more than 80,000 in the big month “. Part of the profits of satisfying its needs, the rest is put aside enough to keep a bankroll of € 100,000: “I care enough to play, 100k, my base rate is 3 € / 6 €, a little 5 € / 10 € and a bit of 2 € / 4 €.
A tracker in the brain
At these limits and with this volume, the enemies of poker players become more fierce, especially on the tables of Pot Limit Omaha, a format where we regularly face “of the variances of 5000 € per hour.” ‘J’ have already lost a month thirty wineries (30,000 €) which is for me a lot of money, but not much considering the number of hours of hands played, “for whom the tempers Panisson OLP is the future of poker: “I think the hold’em will be exceeded in some years by the Omaha.
But whether Hold’em or Omaha, Anthony is most effective when it has fewer opponents to master: “The more ‘short’, I’m more at ease. I started heads-up, but for my game tables of three or five players that’s fine, that’s what suits me best. ”
Raised on the banks of poker, Panisson is one of the few players to the limit where it operates not to use software for decision support in real time, the famous ‘trackers’. “It has been 5 years since I played without tracker “says he,” as of today I am one of the players making the most hours on the room. There are moments where I’m going to have disadvantages but most of the information I need, I have them in my own tracker in my brain! ”
“Play with evil and you will become ill”
Poker closed to the PLO through hold’em, his career in the old way “of a game changing technology inevitably recalls that of Antony Lellouche pro player with whom he shares more than the name.” In Omaha he is a player who makes big swings but has the bankroll accordingly. I most often seen in cellars extort leave. ”
When Panisson decides to face the ‘regs’ (regular players) French OLP, it is not to be noticed for a vanity or self-satisfied that he leaves to others. “Personally, I have no ego problems” Anthony admits, “I like playing ‘regs’, I say not every day, but from time to time to try to keep the level even of progress. I was always told ‘plays you become ill with bad plays with good and you will progress’. ”
On a limit to another, and Panisson navigates over the mood and shape of tables available and players present “in 5 / 10 we meet more professionals, regs, in 3 / 6 I can lose 5 or 6 wineries in a bad run, but I know that most people in front will not be around after losing two cellars, “and because” they will put everything on the table. ”
The secret of success without assaulting tilter
When asked Anthony if stoic boy is his secret to become a hungry shark on online poker tables, fuse reply: “be aggressive! Aggressive pay all the time in the long term” . Another essential quality in his opinion: namely “manage tilt. When it goes wrong, ie turn off the computer and take a break.” More generally, the image of bowling balls that collide on occasion with his friends: “we must take the right curve and try to follow it.”
Wise words from an experienced player whose only Achilles heel is probably the game environment, judging by the Spartan comfort in which it operates: “If I say I am pro, we laugh. I am sitting on my couch, legs crossed, a computer with the smaller screen, with over ten tables. ”
Yet, he readily admits the value of a play station at the height “is not very important to me but it’s still important to be comfortable, to have his ease, be quiet. All the people I work with internet both screens in a comfortable lounge. Me, I’m on a wooden chair, but that does not change too much of my process, “though he admits that for a ‘grindeur’,” the healthy lifestyle is very, very important. ”
Panisson continues his “merry way”, with or without sponsor
Anthony Giangrasso
Improve your playing convenience, here is a concrete and achievable goal for Panisson that does not set any other constraint, “playing a lot of money do part of my goals. When I started the year. Fr, I gave myself goals but I saw that it was not a good thing because it might upset me. Now I understand that I do gives me more goals I try to move up and manage up in the right direction. ”
While many young players who have not yet passed the test of time father and mother to sell a sponsor Panisson has no difficulty in resisting the siren call of the media circus: “I am a rather shy boy” confessed he, “We will not refuse a sponsor, but if the media does not do not worry, I continue my merry way.”
But there is another less obvious reason for which we have not seen the shark as Marseille in the major live poker tournaments: the fear of flying has reduced its activity to live “a few tournaments and private parties, as a distraction. I have taken the pressure off live for two years. ” This fear has faded recently, finally allowing him to plan trips further afield: “These days I had no apprehension, so this year I’ll go to Las Vegas instead for cash but will also quite a few tournaments. ”
Luck? “It makes me laugh”
This pragmatic attitude, we find it logically in the management of his private life: “I am someone who knows the value of money and the taste of life, good restaurants, relaxing with my wife or between friends “. And when poker goes wrong, he turns to his friend Robert Giordano Marseilles better known on the circuit under his nickname ‘Bestof’: “It’s my coach, in life there are always weak moment and I always brings the best thing. ”
Anthony Giangrasso before leaving, we asked him what a look he wears on his debut, its evolution and some critics of rewarding ‘good run’ perpetual.
“I could have done better in the early years,” he replied bluntly, “I started from nothing and made ??a magical year. I do not consider myself old but when I see that ‘youngsters’ d think ‘I was lucky, after five years it makes me laugh. Yes I know some players who have been lucky for a year, a year and a half, but after a bad passage of six months they were no longer “.
Having played so much in so little time has also driven a wedge between Anthony and the players he faced in his debut: “I have a friend who has fifteen years of playing poker, I played the equivalent in a year and a half “from which a wry but realistic about finding those who have not evolved as quickly:” Some players are real robots. Sometimes I see that the person has remained at the same point in past, his game has hardly budged. A little guy who was bluffing, three years later he still does not bluff … ”
One dream: “put simply”
A balanced life in the sun in his city at heart, an undeniable success in high stakes cash games, what could he fail in this authentic bushel except maybe to prove to a wider public?
“Nothing more, it remains as is. Next year, if it is there that’s good. By then we may have changed the vision of things.”
Where many live in the dream and the hope of glory often chimerical, Anthony Giangrasso already knows that his unusual background made him a French UFO poker online. Keeping feet on the ground and head cold, cold-blooded predator that has set a target that money is only a tool, “poker is my life but I would not play until fifty years. I hope I’ll play as a hobby or a passion, but I hope to have children, grow my family, have goals, make good investments. Proceed, simply “