In the days before poker became my life I always thought that Prague was nothing more than a great place to get off your tits and sleep with inexpensive and picture perfect pairs of prostitutes.
So far, after three trips to the Czech capital, the only impressive bust I have seen was one mounted outside of the impressive looking Prague Castle, which incidentally was closed after I had hiked God, knows how many miles to see the thing.
It’s not the first time this idiot has missed a spectacular sight in Prague either. In what ranks as one of my most bitter moments in poker, I also missed the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in 2010 when Roberto Romanello took the trophy in a flood of tears that wouldn’t have seemed out of place at the screening of The Champ.
Romanello is one of the most humble darlings you will ever meet in the game of poker. An extremely rounded individual, the man loves his family so much I’m sure if you peered underneath his Versace jeans you would find a pair of ruby slippers.
I first set eyes on Romanello whilst playing in the Grosvenor casinos in both Swansea and Cardiff, where he had quickly made a name for himself as one of the best live tournament players. In fact, the lad was cleaning house in the local game, and is one of the very few that managed to build a sustainable bankroll through nothing but live tournament poker earnings in the local casino.
Then after ‘that’ lay down at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Romanello was suddenly thrust into the spotlight as a Full Tilt Poker (FTP) sponsored pro. The Welshman was soon trading the Grosvenor in Swansea for the FTP television shows that were being aired all over the world.
Unlike many who traverse the poker circus, success didn’t change Romanello, and if anything it just created more gratitude in his life. Even if he had wanted to get a little bigheaded his friends and family would soon drag him back down to earth.
Romanello loves his poker but not necessarily the life that dovetails with it. He gets lonely during six weeks stints at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and longs to be back home in between jaunts around some of the more salubrious surroundings the European game has to offer.
He is also a very emotional man; a trait that makes him one of the most interesting people to interview in the poker world. There is no script when you interview Romanello, no pre-recorded answers. There is no hit and run, no stifled process, and instead you sit down and have a genuine chat about life. Romanello shoots from the hip, and if you get shot in the process then so be it.
His emotional side was never better demonstrated than when he won that EPT title in Prague. Overcome with emotion Romanello broke down into floods of tears. I thought it was a perfectly normal reaction, but within the often-machinated halls of poker it seemed oddly out of place for some.
That win meant the world to him, as did the World Poker Tour (WPT) title he won in Bratislava not long after. When he made the final table of that event he told me that he wasn’t going to cry.
“I’ve released that emotion,” he told me.
Four eliminations later and Romanello was sat at the opposite end of the table to the Colombian Mayu Roca as the pair squared off for the title.
Then in the final hand of a tense contest Roca raised to 90,000, Romanello three-bet to 255,000, Roca four-bet to 590,000, Romanello moved all-in and Roca called.
“Have you got a pair?” Asked Romanello.
“No.” Said Roca.
“It’s a race.” Said Romanello has he excitedly clapped his hands.
Romanello turned over his baby pair and Roca showed ace-king. A flip that Romanello knew he was going to win. The [Jc] [8h] [6c] [3d] and [Qs] hit the deck and as I typed as quickly as I could I peered over to the Welshman and he had once again broken down in tears. I remember swallowing spit as hard as I could in attempt to stop myself from crying.
After his victory Romanello celebrated with an all expenses paid party back at the hotel, as I am told he did likewise after his win in Prague. Romanello took a seat beside me. His eyes were black and he looked in desperate need of sleep.
“I can’t wait to get home.” He told me.
He asked me why I wasn’t drinking.
“Everything is on me.” He said.
When I told him I didn’t drink alcohol he ordered me the most expensive fillet steak on the menu and the world’s most expensive cup of coffee. What a man I thought…until I later learned that the most expensive cup of coffee in the world is made from coffee beans that are shat out of a cats arse.
A few months after that victory Romanello invited me down to his family restaurant Roma for some home made fish and chips. Just to make sure that it was perfect, Romanello even got behind the fryer and cooked them for me.
I had my son with me and Romanello treated him to a ride in his Ferrari whilst I stayed at his home with his parents. We were in the kitchen as his mother cooked a welsh stew called cawl and there were children running around all over the place.
It’s easy to see why Romanello finds it so difficult to leave. I wanted to move in there and then and I am positive his family would have let me. After a few spoonfuls of cawl we moved into the living room and sitting on his mantelpiece in the front room was that EPT Trophy. I swear football trophies he had won when he was 14 years old surrounded it.
Black Friday hit Romanello as hard as most. Suddenly, his sponsorship deal had gone and he had to find his own money if he was going to continue playing on the circuit. A brief stint with Matchbook helped, but after they severed all ties with sponsored players he was soon back on his own.
With his family pushing forward with the Roma fish and chip shop chain back home, Romanello was left with a decision. Was he to continue plying his trade on the international poker circuit, or was he going to knuckle down and work hard with his family?
For anyone who knows Roberto Romanello it was a no brainer. He pulled up those Versace jeans, clicked those Ruby slippers and said:
‘There’s no place like home.”
