button in Safari"Pizza Tony" Antonio Delacruz Riding High on Day 1b
After two months on the road, Antonio Delacruz is settling in nicely here at Harrah’s Pompano Beach and heads into the second break of the day as one of the biggest stacks in the room with around 150,000.
A big chunk of that stack came in a pot against Art Peacock, where Peacock bet 12,000 on the turn and 36,500 on the river. Delacruz called him down with just third pair of eights, and Peacock could only show ace-high for a bluff.
“Well, I didn’t think he would check the ten on the flop, then lead pretty strong on the turn. It didn’t make any sense,” Delacruz said. “And then the bet was really big on the river. I was thinking, even if he had jack-nine and hit a nine, he would’ve just checked. Either he flopped top set or he didn’t have anything. I was really nervous about it, though. It was a tough call.”
Known as “Pizza Tony,” Delacruz owns a chain of pizza restaurants but regularly travels for poker, where he’s amassed nearly $600,000 in live tournament earnings despite his semi-professional status. “I just got off the road after two months. Went from Vegas to Montreal, to North Carolina, to Tulsa, then it got a little tiring so I’m taking a little break,” he said.
This is only Delacruz’s second RunGood event. He first played in Jacksonville in 2025, where he won a ring in a $400 bounty event. He’s enjoyed an up-and-down day, including the last hand right before break. “So far, so good. I just lost aces to five-six the last hand, the guy flopped two pair on me. I keep going up to 200,000, then back down to 150,000. But it’s going pretty good, I can’t complain, I guess,” he said.
“It would be nice if we could find a nice bag and win tomorrow.”
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
150,000
30,000
|
30,000 |