Pizza, Pasta, and Poker – Vince Burgio’s Little-Known Book is Treasure Trove of Poker History
In the decade before Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event to become a household name and help spark the “Poker Boom,” the superstars of poker were of a different breed. Names like Huck Seed, Mansour Matloubi, and Hamid Dastmalchi were often atop tournament reports.
If you ask the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, another popular player from the 90s, they’d probably mention Vince Burgio.
The now 90-year-old Burgio made headlines last summer at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for being the oldest player remaining on Day 2 of the $1,000 Seniors Event and giving the traditional, “Shuffle up and deal!” He ultimately went on to finish in 165th place for $4,738.
Burgio has amassed more than $2.25 million in lifetime earnings dating back to 1987, according to The Hendon Mob. That includes a career-high $168,000 four finishing fourth in the 1994 WSOP Main Event and $164,000 for winning the 1994 Diamond Jim Brady $5,000 Main Event. He also won $127,200 and a gold bracelet for taking down the 1994 WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Split tournament.
Burgio served as co-commentator of the 2005/06 season of Ultimate Poker Showdown alongside the late Chad Brown. During that time, during the height of the Poker Boom, Burgio also released an autobiography, Pizza, Pasta, and Poker: The Private & Public Life of a Professional Poker Player.
At the behest of his longtime wife, Debbie, Burgio had actually started the book years before, but he was inspired to finish and release it after poker went mainstream. I picked up a copy of the self-published book, which is now more than 20 years old, many years ago at the Gambler’s Book Store in Las Vegas.
After meeting Burgio during last year’s WSOP, I was inspired to pull it off my shelf and give it a read, and I’m sure glad I did. Burgio grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, to an Italian family, something you can garner from the title of the book (Richard Vehlow pointed out to me it’s actually a play on former New York Senator Alphonse D’Amato’s autobiography Pizza, Pasta, and Politics). After learning poker at his father’s bar and honing his skills in the military, Burgio made his way to Seattle, which is where the book got particularly interesting.
That’s because Burgio has firsthand experience with the early poker scene in the Pacific Northwest. His documented life serves as a sort of poker history for that region, and eventually into the Southern California scene, as well as Las Vegas events such as the Diamond Jim Brady, Hall of Fame Poker Classic, Four Queens Poker Classic, and yes, even the World Series of Poker in the 1990s.
He shares stories about poker legends, including John Bonetti, Jack McClelland, Robert Turner, and even Phil Ivey, talks about game-changing hands otherwise lost to history (this was a time before PokerNews Live Updates after all), and offers up a smorgasbord of fun and entertaining tales.
My only qualm is that, having come out in 2005, the book is missing two decades' worth of poker adventures from Burgio, who most recently cashed a tournament in February of this year. Even as a nonagenarian, Burgio is still plying his trade, and according to his wife, was even up on the roof this past winter putting up elaborate Christmas decorations (an annual tradition according to the book).
While Pizza, Pasta, and Poker wraps up nicely and stands on its own, I surely wouldn’t mind a follow-up book picking up where it left off. At the very least, I plan to sit down with Burgio in person one of these days and ask him what other stories and adventures he may have for the poker world!
Pizza, Pasta, and Poker is definitely worth the read if you enjoy poker history and learning about the game’s colorful characters. That’s assuming you can find a copy!
