One player who has been doing quite well on the network is bracelet winner Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall that last summer, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Earlier this year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.
PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.
Q&A with Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo
PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?
Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn’t play much online early on, regrettably.
What sort of poker do you play these days?
Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I’m on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.
What’s it like to play poker while raising young children?
It’s been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I’ve had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.
Daniel Lupo and his family
What are some of your poker goals?
Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.
I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.
How did it feel to take down the partypoker US Network Phased Main Event last month?
I was pretty stoked about the partypoker US win. I love their structure and it was a very tough field when we were deep; I was fortunate to run pretty well and the be able to leverage my chip stack at the final table. I had made a bunch of top 18 runs in their series Main Events but couldn't crack a solid finish lately so this felt a little extra special.
The tournament clock shows 504 players, meaning that the first guarantee of the series has been surpassed! Level 16 has just started, and registration will be available until the end of level 18, so you still have about half an hour to open up the lobby, and take your virtual seat!
Following a raise to 17,000 from "illtiltyou", Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo moved all in for his final 164,000. It folded back around to "illtiltyou", and he called all in with .
He was flipping against the of Lupo, and the flip turned into a blowout after the gave Lupo middle set. A six on the turn sealed the hand, and Lupo scored a big double up to nearly 350,000.
Ryan “simlSgg” Hagerty and "Zdvol632" went back and forth at each other preflop until a pot of 350,000 had developed. Hagerty was in a world of hurt, as his was miles behind the of "Zdvol632". The gap would grow after the flop of , and the turn.
However, the completed the board, sending a miracle double up over to Hagerty.
Registration for this event will be closing at the top of the hour, and below, you will see the players who have positioned themselves best for this massive first place prize.
The opening event of this latest partypoker US Network Online Series was a smashing success, as 572 players helped to create a prizepool of $114,400. The final 81 players will finish in the money tonight, each earning at least $320.32. First place will take home $19,756.88. Take a look at the payouts tabs in order to see the full breakdown of the prizepool, and good luck to all players still left!
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"OneOuts" got his final 70,000 in the middle preflop holding , and he was called by "SharingisCaring", who showed . The flop of gave him some extra outs, but the turn and river brought no further help, sending the double up over to "OneOuts."
, and "RyDee" scooped up the pot to boost his stack to over 325,000.
. 
of Lupo, and the flip turned into a blowout after the 
gave Lupo middle set. A six on the turn sealed the hand, and Lupo scored a big double up to nearly 350,000.
was miles behind the 
of "Zdvol632". The gap would grow after the flop of 
turn. 
completed the board, sending a miracle double up over to Hagerty.
gave him some extra outs, but the 
river brought no further help, sending the double up over to "OneOuts."