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Remo Lupo Building a Big Stack of "Bananas"
Remo Lupo has built up a sizeable chip stack so far on Day 1a, but it is dwarved by the big plush banana toy he has in front him.
With his lucky number “13” written in black ink on it, Lupo doesn’t bet chips. He bets “bananas.” The story of the bananas, he says, goes back to a cash game he played a few years ago.
“I was playing a cash game in Hollywood Casino in Maryland. I called the chips ’31 bananas.’ I had pocket queens. The guy had $99 left and he went all in. I was about to call him, and he said don’t do it. Don’t do it. He’s a senior citizen, he comes in there all the day. He said, don’t do it. I got your hand beat. I said I had pocket queens, what’s another $68? He said I got it beat. he had pocket nines,” Lupo said.
“So what happened was, everybody got mad. Nobody wants to play with him. Everybody called him a scumbag. He wrote to the poker magazine and he told them about the whole situation that happened. The poker magazine office told him, you know what, I’m glad nobody talks to you anymore. You should never do that to somebody you play with. So what he did was the following week he brought in 13 bananas for me. I told him, you know what you could do with those bananas. So that's how the 13 bananas got started.”
Most of Lupo’s career scores have come here at Borgata. He finished 19th in the Borgata Winter Poker Open in January 2025 for $20,800, the largest score of his career that includes around $68,000 in live earnings. “The only casino I come to is Borgata the last three years. Before that, I took care of my parents for 11 years. So what I do is play for enjoyment a little bit,” he said.
Lupo’s day included taking out an opponent with top pair, then flopping a straight to bust WSOP bracelet winner Michael Bohmerwald. He currently sits with around 110,000 and constantly keeps his table talking and enjoying the experience.
“I always have fun. A lot of players, they’re here for whatever they got to do. Pay a mortgage. You got to work for a living. I worked all my life in a pizza restaurant, 18 hours a day. So now I enjoy playing a little bit of poker,” Lupo said.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
120,000 |