Andrea Dato talks about his future and poker in Italy

Andrea Dato is one of the big talents of the Italian poker scene, this week he finished in 4th place at the EPT Barcelona Main Event for €362,000, which is his biggest score so far. In a recent interview he talked about his background, about the future of his career and more.

Dato has almost $1.6 million in winnings, his biggest score before his deep run at the EPT Barcelona Main Event was winning the WPT Venice Main Event for €105,000. He is also an engineer, something that according to him has helped him developing a scientific approach to the game. He thinks poker is a problem-solving game, where you have to make educated estimates based on known and unknown information.

Dato has been on the televised table at the EPT, but as he explains, he embraces the pressure that all the cameras create, because it makes him play better. He used to teach at a university where he was giving lessons to big audiences, so he doesn't care about the cameras and microphones recording his every move.

Andrea Dato at the WPT Venice

Another advantage of the televised table is, according to Andrea, that it makes online players nervous and in general makes the opponents play more straightforward.

Dato also talked about the problems that Italian players are facing. He believes that since the highest stakes online are €5/€10, Italian players have very limited opportunities to improve. If they want to become top players on a global level, they have to play on the .com market, where the players are constantly improving, and this is where Andrea sees his future also.

The taxes and the segregated market make it very hard for Italian players to make decent progress (and money), so he plans on moving to London soon, where, everything except the terrible weather is perfect for a poker player.