Michael Addamo - SOMUCHPOKER

Michael Addamo is an Australian professional poker player. He was born in 1994.

He is hailed as one of the best online and live poker players from Australiaand, indeed, the whole world. He’s a 4-time World Series of Poker champion. His live tournament earnings exceed US$17.5 million.

In 2021, he won the Poker Masters Purple Jacket after winning two events at the high roller series.

Also, he’s a regular in high stakes online tournaments as well. Impressively, Addamo won two US$100K buy-in online MTT’s during his career, one in 2020 and one in 2021!

His screen name is ”Iamluckbox” on PokerStars.

– Key Career Dates –

• 2012: He starts playing online MTT’s on PokerStars.
• 2018: He wins his first WSOP gold bracelet after finishing first in THE MARATHON – $2,620 No Limit Hold’em event for US$653,581.
  
• 2018: He wins his second WSOP gold bracelet after finishing first in the €25,500 Super Highroller Series event at WSOP Europe for €848,702. T
  
• 2021: He finishes first in the US$102,000 Mega High Roller event at the partypoker MILLIONS Online for US$1.311 million.
• 2021: He wins the $100,000 No Limit Hold’em – Poker Masters Event #12 for $1.160 million. That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date. Also, he wins the Purple Jacket for the overall best player at the Poker Masters.
• 2021: He wins his third and fourth WSOP gold bracelets after finishing first in a US$50,000 high roller, then in a US$100,000 high roller event for US$1.133 million and US$1.959 million, respectively.

– Michael Addamo’s Career –

Addamo was born and raised in Victoria, Australia. Before getting into poker in his late teens, he played chess on a high level.

He started playing poker when he was still an actuary student. He joined live tournaments in 2012 and cashed for very small amounts.

Three years later, in 2015, his live tournament performance started gaining momentum. He secured several five-figure payouts, among them was a near win at the Australia New Zealand Poker Tournament (ANZPT) 6-Max Shot Clock Event finishing 2nd for US$22,437. Prior to that, he finished 4th at the Joe Hachem Poker Challenge Main Event for US$24,308.

The following year, Addamo joined the masses at the 2016 World Series of Poker and cashed in seven events. He nearly captured a bracelet in the US$1,500 No Limit Hold’em event where he finished 3rd for US$196,202. This was the first six-figure payout of his live tournament career. In total, he earned US$250K at the series.

Continuing on to the next year, 2017 proved to be another prolific year for Addamo in the live field. He started off by finishing 3rd at the Aussie Millions A$1,150 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event, earning A$117,910, his largest cash on home soil. In March, he took down the PokerStars Championship Macau HK$82,400 No Limit Hold’em event for another big payout worth HK$1,522,855 (US$196,022). Then a month after, in April, he earned a victory at the Crown Poker Championships High Roller Event for A$58,900 (US$44,539).

Still searching for a win at the WSOP, he cashed in 9 events with a 3rd place finish at the US$333 No Limit Hold’em WSOP.com Online event for US$54,044. Overall, his consistent performance of making it in the money throughout 2017 earned him enough points to be at the top of GPI Rankings for Australia.

However, while 2017 was a good one for Addamo personally, it wasn’t good for Australian poker. That is when the Interactive Gaming Act was amended, making online poker illegal in the continent-nation. This ultimately forced Addamo to relocate to Thailand to be able to keep playing online poker.

Read Our Exclusive Interview with Addamo Here

While 2017 saw Addamo rise tremendously in the live arena, 2018 has become an even bigger year for him. He opened with a strong runner-up finish at the Aussie Millions A$1,150 No Limit Hold’em Opening Event for A$194,690 (US$154,925), improving on his previous year’s placement by one spot. Returning to Macau, he collected three weighted payouts, with the largest being HK$590,000 (US$75,441) for 3rd place at the APPT Macau HK$50,000 No Limit Hold’em event.

What came next were his WSOP achievements, finally winning his first-ever bracelet in the summer of 2018, his second bracelet in Rozvadov in October later that year at the WSOP Europe; and finishing 3rd in the WSOP US$50,000 No Limit Hold’em – High Roller (Event #90) for US$697,375 in 2019.

There is a bit of a gap in results on HendonMob for the second half of 2019, but Addamo started off 2020 with a bang, taking down the Aussie Millions A$48,500 + 1,500 No Limit Hold’em – 50K Challenge for US$741,752. This latest result brought his lifetime earnings to over US$8 million. Thus he currently sits in 3rd place on Australia’s All Time Money List.

In September 2021, he finished first in two events at the annual Poker Masters high roller series at Las Vegas. First, he took down the US$50,000 No Limit Hold’em – Event #11 for US$680,000; then he claimed victory in the very next event, the US$100,000 No Limit Hold’em – Event #12 for $1.160 million. The latter is his biggest live tournament score to date.

These two victories earned him the Purple Jacket, the prestigious award given to the player with the best overall performance at the Masters.

Michael Addamo scoops two final Poker Masters events and Purple Jacket for a combined $1.84 million!https://t.co/9xDBxNjTqT

— Somuchpoker (@Somuchpoker) September 21, 2021

In addition, Addamo’s online achievements are equally prominent. In a span of 4 years, his total profits online shot up from nothing to 6-figure earnings worth more than US$300,000. In 2016, he proved victorious in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) US$700 6-Max NLHE Event. He earned over US$142,000 for his efforts.

2019 was a great online year for Addamo when he, in the course of just two days, chopped the US$2,100 High Roller on PokerStars for $43,000 and took down the WCOOP US$5,200 Sunday Million High Roller for a US$258,952 score and his first WCOOP title.

At the 2020 Super High Roller Bowl Online, he finished runner-up to Justin Bonomo for a whopping $1,187,500, just three weeks after finishing 6th in the 2020 SCOOP-74-H: US$10,300 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] for US$221,648.

In September 2020, he took down the US$102,000 Super High Roller event at the World Poker Tour World Online Championships on partypoker, after making a heads-up deal with Isaac Haxton. After the deal, Addamo pocketed no less than US$1.284 million for his victory.

In March 2021, he won yet another US$100K online tournament! This time, he finished first in the US$102,000 buy-in Mega High Roller event at the partypoker MILLIONS Online for US$1.311 million.

Only a few weeks later, in May 2021, he took down two events at the WPT Online Series on partypoker. First, he won the WPT High Roller Turbo event for US$87,459; then, he went on to finish first in the US$25,500 Super High Roller for US$363,661.

Michael Addamo adds yet another Super High Roller title to his poker resume in the @partypoker WPT Online Series $25k https://t.co/6W0G7uF3I0

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) May 20, 2021

In the same year, in October 2021, he won his third WSOP gold bracelet back on the live felt. He took down the US$50,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller – 8-Handed event for US$1.133 million. He managed o claim yet another World Series victory the same year. This time, he finished first in the US$100,000 NLHE High Roller and bagged US$1.959 million.

Michael Addamo, as a student, had once said that what he truly wanted was to become a professional poker player. True to his word, the man has proven to be one of the formidable players in his country, and without a doubt, he has become a household name among poker fans around the Globe.

Cover photo King’s Casino