Spinella at the 2008 EPT San Remo. Picture courtesy of Poker Listings.Until as recently as September ’07, Anthony Spinella was a regular in the micro-stakes MTT’s and $3/$6 Limit Games while maintaining a bankroll of just $200. In the space of just over a year he has transformed himself into one of the best online tournament players in the world and has prizes of well over a million dollars – before he has even turned 21.
Playing as ‘holdplz’ on all major sites (apart from Absolute Poker, where he is ‘TSPINELLA’), the Port Jefferson, NY native (now living in Waxhaw, NC) has been as high as #11 in the Pocket Fives World-Wide Rankings having come from seemingly nowhere to earn the respect of his notoriously hard to please online peers.
Spinella credits his career to transferring colleges to SUNY Albany where he met his mentor, Shawn ‘Jordankickz’ Busse. He told us: “I transferred to SUNY Albany, however after a semester and some success, combined with several live packages I won, I was unable to continue going to school (lastsemester attended was Fall ’07)”. After devoting more time to think about the game he took down a $300 freeze-out for $16,000 to really kick-start his bankroll at the end of 2007 before taking runner-up in a December PokerStars Sunday Million for a cool $96,000 – the rest, as they say, is history.
- Lives in Waxhaw, North Carolina
- Student at SUNY Albany
- Won Full Tilt $1k Monday & $750K GTD in under a month
– Turns 21 in June 2009
Entering 2008 with his new-found 6-figure roll, ‘holdplz’ proceeded to take down the Stars $100 Re-Buy in February for $50,700 before placing 3rd in the $200 Re-Buys for a further $21,960 less than a month later (most pros will tell you that coming from micro-donkaments to the Stars Re-Buys is one of the biggest skill jumps in any form of the game). Given that he is not yet old enough to play in the States, Spinella then qualified for the EPT San Remo in April and made a deep run before eventually busting in 32nd for $20,222. Not content with a profit and first-class ticket home, he stayed in Italy and final tabled the €700 NLH side-event 4 days later (finishing 6th) for $12,892 – now he was really ready to begin pwning the MTT scene.
On his return he finished runner-up in the Full Tilt $1k Monday for $61,600 at the end of April before the biggest score of his young career in July – victory in the $750k GTD, earning him $132,788 and entry into the P5 top 100 rankings for the first time. In the following 6 months he gradually made his way up to #11 after runner-up finishes in the Stars Wednesday Quarter Million ($35,154), Sunday 500 ($66,500) & Absolute Poker $150k Weekly ($24,000) as well as outright victories in the FT $1k Monday ($100,250), Fifty-Fifty ($10,367), Absolute Poker $1k ($30,000), a Full Tilt nightly $163 double, Stars $50 Re-Buys ($15,015) & strangely the $10 Re-Buys ($14,609). For a fantastic example of higher level thinking that the online pros constantly bang on about check out his analysis of a key Sunday 500 hand between Spinella & MTT regular ‘Whooookidd’ in Card Player. holdplz continued his hot streak with an outright victory in the Stars $100k GTD ($24,197) on December 20th.
‘Holdplz’ turns 21 in June 2009, just in time for the WSOP – don’t be surprised to see the name Anthony Spinella on a few NLH cash-lists after a stunning break-through year.
SH: Firstly, could you tell us how you got into the game & when you first realised that you could potentially make a lot of money from your poker skills? holdplz: I have always been into the game ever since I was little – my family would play home games on the holidays, and my older brother proceeded to play recreationally and I sort of followed him with that. He then began to start playing online and this sparked my interest as well, and then ever since early days of high school I’ve had a desire to play and win. As for when i realized that I could make a lot of money from the game, I’m not too sure. I always had the desire and ambition to play and win, but I never really thought that I would be this successful at it. Even after I had my first big score in December ’07 and had accumulated a pretty healthy bankroll, I wasn’t really confident that I would continue being successful. I remember after taking 2nd in the Full Tilt 1k was when I began to think that I could actually do this poker thing for a living and be able to continue making a significant amount of money.
SH: You told us you finished going to SUNY Albany in Fall of 2007. Do you have any plans to go back into education at some point? holdplz: Yes, I do have plans, or rather an idea, to go back to school and get a formal education. It’s just very dependent on my future success and schedule, if I plan on playing a lot live or not. I would definitely like to go back and finish school (mostly for self-edifying purposes as I have no other direction in life other than poker and don’t know what major / career path I would possibly choose), it’s just impossible to do so with the amount of traveling I do, and also I feel like it is burning money a tad if I really do plan on just pursuing a poker career. SH: You’ve had some big results in your career already, the biggest being victory in the Full Tilt $750k GTD for $132k. Would you say that is your most satisfying achievement to date? holdplz: Hmm, that’s a good question. It was my biggest score and came at a good time to end a thorough downswing so it was incredibly satisfying. Looking back now and trying to think though, I think my 100r win was the most satisfying. It was at a time in my career where winning stuff was far more satisfying and even moreso exciting than it is now. It was my 2nd biggest score at the time in a pretty tough field, and it was an outright win which made me pretty happy. SH: You are a Pocket Fiver & have managed to get very high on the World Rankings recently. Is getting to No#1 on the site an ambition of yours and does that sort of recognition matter to you? holdplz: Well, at the start of 2008 one of my “poker goals” was to get ranked, which I achieved about 7 months into the year. Now that I am / have been near the top, being #1 is sort of an ambition of mine but it’s basically just a thought in the back of my head. Rankings are pretty meaningless to me at this point, but it’s always nice to see actual improvement and advancement in something, whatever it may be. SH: Which other MTT players do you respect the most? And who would you least like to see on your left at a final table? holdplz: There really are a ton of players that I could fill in here – a lot of the 2+2 community, jordankickz, the universe, shaun deeb, bakes, djk, then players like ajkhoosier, moorman, sctrojans, menlo – there are too many to possibly come up with. As for who i’d least like to see on my left I’m not really sure, I just prefer to have some tight player rather than any LAG there. SH: A lot of players say they had a ‘eureka’ moment in poker when they realised the importance of a certain tournament concept. What has been the most important strategic element that has evolved your game? holdplz: The first thing that clicked for me was understanding stack size-related concepts. After that, it was just some little things like adapting to my image more, valuing my stack more, and some various other little concepts. SH: Have you noticed the standard of tournament play improving among weaker players in recent months? holdplz: Yes it certainly has – more and more people are getting better every day especially with all the training sites and forums out there. Still, all the games are overall pretty soft, and those tournaments that aren’t still have tons of soft spots and dead money involved. SH: On a strategic level, what is the biggest error you see amateur tournament players making? holdplz: I think people set mine and overplay small-mid pairs far too much. SH: Could you take us through an average working day in the life of holdplz? holdplz: Well that depends on the day. I typically play Mon/Tue/Wed nights, Saturday afternoons and all day Sundays. During the week I’ll wake up, and depending on the time of year, hopefully do something non-poker related – in the Winter I like to go snowboarding, out of season and if I’m around it the ocean is always nice. Just being outside and getting any exercise before playing is always a plus. Other than that, prior to playing I like to shower and get a meal in me. SH: Which players are you closest to in the poker community? holdplz: Mostly my mentor, Jordankickz. Other than him, some 2+2 related people such as The Universe, and then some other people I’ve met through either randomness such as mr_bigqueso or live tourney trips such as puffinmypurp and big egypt. SH: Do you plan on increasing your live schedule after you have turned 21? holdplz: Pretty much, I mean I’ll be able to play a lot more without dealing with the hassle of international travel, which is a little more hassle for me than most other people. It’ll depend though on my financial situation and bankroll along with some other things, but I’ll definitely be playing a full NLHE schedule at the 2009 WSOP. SH: And finally, what are your poker ambitions in 2009? holdplz: Well, my birthday is June 3rd, so I have something like a 7-9 day span to race for youngest bracelet winner – that’s been a thought of mine for a while now and I can’t really think of anything else I’d like more. If i can’t be the youngest bracelet winner though I’ll certainly settle for any bracelet. Also, I’ve been trying to get into grind mode which is something I never really did in ’08, at least not in the way I plan on grinding now – It’ll probably start about a month from now or whenever I receive everything for my new setup. Also, a live major FT at minimum, and hopefully a major win would be nothing short of fantastic. Lastly, get back to the solid bank roll management routine I used to abide by, and try to enjoy the game like I used to, or at least more than I have been lately.
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