Everyone who is anyone in the online poker community has heard the name Anthony Pirone, or at least his internet moniker, “TPirahna”. He’s a legend on the virtual felt, grinding his way to fame at LHE tables for more than 10 years. After more than 3 million hands, $2 million in profits and $1 million in rake (earning him SuperNova Elite status on PokerStars), the 39 year old says it’s time for a change – a big change – to Daily Fantasy Sports.
Pirone made the announcement of his tentative retirement in a blog post earlier this month in which he detailed a multitude of reasons for his decision. “I’m officially retired from poker,” said Prione. “I’ve put off this blog post for a while trying to be certain that I’m done and while I’m still not 100% certain, I’m more certain now than at any other point. “ The online poker pro went on to explain, “I will probably play poker in some capacity in the future, even if only for recreational purposes,” but apparently playing poker for the rest of his life just isn’t ‘in the cards’.
Anthony said the foremost reason for his decision was that he simply doesn’t enjoy playing online poker anymore. More to the point, he describes grinding multiple cash games of LHE as “torture”. Prione said that he’s been doing this for over 10 years, and that, “Five years ago it was fairly easy for me to play six tables of short-handed LHE for many hours, remain focused at all of them, and have a pretty good idea of what was going on at each.” But now, he says it’s become “very difficult to have that same level of focus for any extended period of time.”
The online poker pro defined his previous love for poker as a “burning desire to play”, but says that now, “that desire is long gone.” He attributed the lack of enjoyment to the altered landscape of online poker over the last decade. In the beginning, Pirone says it was easy to find multiple cash games with recreational players prime for the picking, but that now, it’s become a race to get a positional seat on a table where a recreational player is located. “When trying to multi-table for endless hours, also trying to keep every table open while vigilantly watching to see if a seat is about to be taken can be maddening.”
Another largely contributing factor in Anthony Pirone’s decision to quit poker was his longing to return to the US. While traveling around the world and experiencing new cultures was fun for a while, the online poker legend says its grown old, and that “there are a LOT of things in the US that I miss”.
Despite his tentative retirement from online poker “TPirahna” will continue to pursue a career in the betting world. What he cited as the “possible solution to all my problems” was a new developing trend in the US, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS). Gambling online in DFS is completely legal in the US, whereas online poker is only legal in three states – Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey – and with ring fenced markets that greatly decrease the playing field. Converting to daily fantasy sports betting would relieve Pirone’s traveling issues, and gives him a new challenge that already loves. “I wake up every day excited,” about playing, he said.