Stephen Totilo is a poker professional and a well known personality in the industry. He is known for his crazy plays, crazy after decisions and his unpredictable play and is often called a player that goes for the kill at every hand. He is also a known personality on the poker circuit and has had a couple of big events where he got into trouble with the law. This is Totilo’s story.

Stephen Totilo was born in407 United States on 13th June in the year 1964. His father, Howard Totilo, had a career in sales and business before becoming a professional poker player. The son started playing poker at the tender age of 8, after his father took him to the casino to play slots. Howard Totilo was a local legend and was known for his bold plays and gambling. Stephen started to play poker and became a regular player at the age of 11. He began to develop his game from 8 to 11 and by the age of 16, Stephen was playing high stakes games and was well in demand to participate in the local poker tournaments. He was a difficult player to model because of his good work at the tables and his traits. He is originally a German and he has a sister who is completing high school. Stephen is popular for his wild swings, his love of toying with the rules and his ability to outplay opponents.

At the age of 17, Stephen committed the mistake of playing at high stakes games instead of the no limit games his father hadouri Krupa would normally play. This resulted in a ban on the game for Stephen and he gave up playing poker for a couple of years. But the ban would not last long as Stephen would go on to graduate from high school. At that time he would still play limit poker and he did not drop out until the 2003 World Series of Poker. He made it to the final table during the Main Event and beat out the likes of Johnny Chan and Phil Ivey to win the $1,000,000 prize. At this point in his career, people were starting to call him the Tiger Woods of poker.

Stephen would excel at cash games and especially the no limit games that are staples of the WPT. But, he was known for his ability to win shootouts both online and at live tournaments. By the end of his WPT career, Stephen had won first place about a dozen times and only rarely came up against players who were his superior. Most of the time, his opponents were better than him. Although he rarely made final tables, his finishes always went on to be better than average. Although, his big wins did not come against the best.

Side bar coming!

Stephen quit playing poker to take a job as a practicing optician. He said that the game was no longer his passion. According to Steve Udistance, when he announced his retirement, Stephen said, “It’s far better to take a patient’s hand and doctor them than it is to teach them to beat their opponents.” He concluded by saying that his priority was to take care of his family.

Many people ask, “What will Steve learn from all this experience if he retires from Vegas88?” I believe it is this…

1. You have to be willing to listen and learn from people who are better than you.
2. You have to be willing to be disciplined and train yourself to become a better poker player.
3. You have to be willing to change your views and open yourself up to new possibilities.
4. realism is important…and that you can be willing to do the opposite.
5. Most of all, you have to be willing to change your habits. I believe that the players who always believe they are going to win until they get a hand like pocket aces, are the losers. I believe you can win a lot more poker tournaments if the times you do make a mistake, are fewer and fewer. You have to be able to – play patient and predictable, and be able to hit a monster as often as possible.

These are all very important skills that you cannot develop easily, or overnight. Its going to take you a long time to learn them though, and practice practicing is a great way to learn.