‘Italy is back on the live poker map’ – Luca Pagano
Inside PokerStars with Luca Pagano, Head of PokerStars Live room at Casinò di Campione d’Italia
Luca Pagano reflects with barely concealed pride on a transformational moment nine months earlier. As Head of the PokerStars Live room at Casinò di Campione d’Italia, March 10, 2025, marked a new dawn.
It was the first day of the PokerStars Open Campione Festival and it was the moment when Luca truly felt “Italy is back on the live poker map”. After 12 years away, PokerStars live events was back, and the culmination of a long personal and professional journey for Luca was now complete.
“Last year felt like a homecoming – not just for me,” he offers, “but for PokerStars and for a lot of players who remembered the glory days of live events in Italy. After several years without a major PokerStars festival in the country, coming back with a dedicated PokerStars Live room in Campione, in partnership with the casino and Sisal, was a big statement: Italy is back on the live poker map.”
Luca Pagano, Head of the PokerStars Live room at Casinò di Campione d’Italia
PokerStars Open in Campione
He adds: “The highlight was, of course, the inaugural PokerStars Open in Campione. Over one week we welcomed thousands of players from all over Europe and beyond. The numbers were impressive, but what I remember most is the atmosphere: seeing the room full from the first flight to the final table, with big names, qualifiers and local regulars all sharing the same space.”
According to Luca, 2025 in Italy for PokerStars was more than just that week – much more, in fact.
“The whole year was about rebuilding habits and trust,” the Head of the PokerStars Live room at Casinò di Campione d’Italia explains. “We launched a regular PokerStars Live schedule, then added new branded festivals and partner events. The idea was to show players that Campione isn’t just hosting a one-off event, but is once again a reliable, year-round European destination for live poker.
“On a personal level, hearing players say ‘it feels like the old IPT and EPT days’ was very emotional. It confirmed that the mix of PokerStars standards, the history of Campione, and the passion of Italian players can still create something special.”
PokerStars in Italy in 2026
Speaking to PokerStars as part of its Inside PokerStars interview series in early December, the 2026 iteration of PokerStars Open Campione is just over a month away with a January 23 start date and running until February 1, It’s going to be a busy Christmas and early new year, surely?
Luca’s first year as a professional poker player was back in 2004
“From a planning point of view, we’re already deep into the details: refining the schedule and structures for the PokerStars Open, coordinating travel and hospitality options, and aligning our regular calendar so that players can qualify, come back, and feel continuity between one visit and the next,” he states.
2026 is a very important milestone for us because it’s the year when Campione fully establishes itself as part of the new PokerStars Open and the wider PokerStars Live ecosystem
But 2026 is not just a cut and paste of 2025 – far from it according to the Head of the PokerStars Live room.
“2026 is a very important milestone for us because it’s the year when Campione fully establishes itself as part of the new PokerStars Open and the wider PokerStars Live ecosystem. The season actually starts here: PokerStars Open Campione will run from late January into early February, with a €1,100 Main Event carrying a €1,000,000 guarantee and a full festival schedule built around it.”
2026: Expectations
What are his expectations for the PokerStars Open Campione?
“Our expectation is simple but ambitious: we want to build on the record numbers and great atmosphere we’ve seen and turn Campione into a fixed reference point on every European player’s calendar. That means not just one big festival to kick off the year, but a strong year-round offering, with branded series and partner events that make the PokerStars Live room feel ‘always on’ for different types of players.”
To finish on this point, he sums it up nicely: “The key words for 2026 are consistency and growth: consistent quality every time you walk into the room, and sustainable growth that reinforces Campione’s position as a European destination for live poker.”
Luca says he first played poker proper in a casino in Nova Gorica in Slovenia
In the Beginning
The distance from Nova Gorica in Slovenia to Casinò di Campione d’Italia on the shores of Lake Lugano is 463km. In practical terms that’s how far Luca’s poker journey has come. But there’s a rich story of family bonds, outstanding success and a desire to grow live poker in Italy behind that bare fact.
“That’s (Nova Gorica) where I first sat down in a proper casino game and realised that poker could be much more than a casual pastime for myself. From there, thanks to a shared passion with my father Claudio – one of the early driving forces behind organised poker in Italy – and my brother Nicola, I found the support and encouragement to give it a serious try as a career.”
Luca Pagano: The Professional Poker Player
And what a career Luca has had. Exploding into the poker stratosphere from the off and barely looking back since.
“I turned professional in 2004, when I finished third at the first-ever season of the European Poker Tour in Barcelona. From that moment on I became a regular on the EPT, reaching seven final tables and cashing in 20 EPT events.”
To say he’s done very well during his professional poker career is to drastically undersell his achievements. Highlights include the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo and a win on the Italian Poker Tour in Sanremo. He reached seven final tables, cashed in 20 events and was awarded EPT Player of the Year in his first year.
Team PokerStars Pro Years
It wasn’t long before he was noticed and PokerStars reached out to him.
“For almost 15 years I represented PokerStars as part of Team PokerStars Pro,” Luca adds, “while in parallel helping to grow the live poker scene in Italy through Pagano Events. Being part of that first ‘generation’ of Italian professionals, and seeing the game evolve from the inside, is something I now bring into my role in Campione every day.”
Luca is ever present in ‘the room’ at the Casinò di Campione d’Italia these days
That role is wide ranging and brings him into regular contact with players – something he adores.
“The heart of my job is to be present in the room,” he explains, “so my regular day usually starts in the poker room, not in an office. I like to walk the floor early, talk to the team, check the setup, and make sure that when the first players arrive everything feels welcoming and under control.
“Once play starts, I’m very hands-on: I spend a lot of time greeting players, answering questions, listening to feedback, and simply observing how the room “breathes” – the flow at registration, the mood at the tables, the waiting lists, the breaks. I see myself as the host of a big ongoing event: I want regulars to feel at home and first-timers to feel that they are taken care of from the moment they walk in.”
He adds: “Around that hosting role there is, of course, a more strategic layer: reviewing numbers with the team, fine-tuning structures and schedules, and planning future festivals with PokerStars and the casino. But even those decisions are always guided by what I see and hear on the floor every day. My routine is built around one simple idea: if I’m visible and accessible in the room, everything else tends to work better.”
Challenging Moment
This desire to be visible and ‘hands-on’ came in very handy last year during one of the biggest festival days at Campione. He remembers that day as being both incredibly challenging but ultimately it highlighted the excellence and strength of his team.
“We knew it was going to be busy – it was a key starting flight of the Main Event plus side events and cash games – but the reality exceeded every projection. From early morning, players were lining up at registration, qualifiers were arriving, and we suddenly had to deal with a room that was close to full capacity much earlier than expected.”
For me, that day was a perfect example of a ‘not-very average’ day: a real stress test where all the systems, and especially all the people, had to work together
As he tells the story, the growing feeling of escalating tension is hard to dispel. Cool heads and sharp minds were needed.
“In situations like that, everything happens at once,” Luca adds. “Together with the team we had to setup extra tables, coordinate with the casino to bring in additional staff, and keep the communication clear so players understood exactly what was going on.
“At the same time, I tried to spend as much time as possible on the floor: explaining options, calming a few players, and making sure that, even under pressure, the atmosphere stayed positive and professional.
“We filled every single one of the 100+ tables we had running, within the limits of what a fully regulated casino environment allows. From the outside it’s not always obvious that, when you operate under strict regulations and compliance rules, it’s almost impossible to make substantial changes in a very short time.
“For me, that day was a perfect example of a ‘not-very average’ day: a real stress test where all the systems, and especially all the people, had to work together. It showed me both how strong our team is, and how important it is to keep educating players about what it means to run large-scale poker events inside a casino.”
With his professional playing days behind him, Luca still gets that old feeling today – just from the other side of the table
Standout Memories over Two Decades
He’s been in the poker industry as both a player and now organiser for over two decades – the word legend is hard not to bandy about when mentioning his name. There’s a wealth of memories that stick out for Luca when it’s put to him to mention a few standouts.
“As a player, one of the first that comes to mind is my deep run at EPT Barcelona back in 2004. It was the very beginning of the European Poker Tour, and finishing third there not only changed my career, but it also made me realise that I could really compete at the highest level.”
He recalls another: “I’ll never forget walking into the poker room in Monte Carlo and seeing a giant picture of myself hanging on the wall. It was surreal. You travel the circuit, you focus on playing your best, and then suddenly you realise you’ve become part of the visual identity of a place like Monaco and brand like PokerStars – it’s a very special feeling.”
As he continues reminiscing, it’s clear that Luca’s favourite moments are about the feelings, the sense of achievement, the overwhelming joy – and not necessarily the financial gains.
Lifting a trophy in Italy, in front of so many familiar faces, after so many near-misses on the EPT, was incredibly emotional
“Winning the EPT Player of the Year title in Season 1 is also very close to my heart. It didn’t come with a financial reward, but symbolically it meant a lot. It was the kind of achievement I would never have dreamed of reaching in such a short time, and it validated all the work, the travel and the hours at the tables during those early years.
“On home soil, my victory at the Italian Poker Tour in Sanremo is another highlight. Lifting a trophy in Italy, in front of so many familiar faces, after so many near-misses on the EPT, was incredibly emotional.”
Luca Pagano Today
With his professional playing days behind him, Luca still gets that old feeling today – just from the other side of the table.
“Walking into the PokerStars Live room in Campione during a big festival, seeing more than a hundred tables running, hearing different languages at every corner, and listening to players say ‘this feels like the old IPT and EPT days’ – that gives me the same kind of satisfaction I felt when I was playing. It’s the confirmation that the spirit of PokerStars Live is still alive, just in a new chapter.”
The Future
Looking forward, rather than backward. What does the future hold for him?
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from these intense years as a player, organiser and entrepreneur, it’s that it’s very difficult to predict exactly where you’ll be in five or ten years. Poker teaches you to have a strategy, but also to accept that random events will force you to adjust it. Having a clear direction, however, helps you navigate many difficult – and often unexpected – decisions and sliding doors.”
Wise words indeed. And, as ever, Luca Pagano will be keeping a close eye on everything in the industry. Success breeds success and hard work is its fuel source.
“What I can say is that I have a clear direction rather than a fixed destination. I dream of a future where I can connect all the skills I’ve developed over the years – live events, poker strategy, community building, management and technology – to create something new.”
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