In each and every poker tournament any professional ever took down, there was a period where the eventual champion faced elimination down like a boss. Reduced to around 15 big blinds, it’s a part of the game that tests every player’s mettle at some stage. The bold survive, the weak are blinded away.

Our 15 Bigs questions are exactly the same. Designed to test any player to the limit, our questions probe the passion, evocate the emotion and fuel the fire in each of our PokerStake players. This week, Italian player Dario Alioto, who has over $2.1m in live earnings and is selling to the Diamond Poker Series – PLO Grand Slam festival this January, takes on our challenge.

Will Dario Alioto survive or fade away? Let’s find out.

You’re on a long-haul flight and can only choose one TV Show or Movie to watch on repeat, which is your pick?

The Sopranos.

If you were stranded on a desert island with one book for company, what would it be?

A dictionary would probably keep me busy the longest!

What’s the song you could listen to on repeat forever?

We Are the World (U.S.A. for Africa) by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson.

What’s your favourite place to play poker and why?

King’s Casino, because if some floorman really messes up, I know that his boss will respectfully listen to my point and not just get defensive as anywhere else.

If you were to be shot at dawn, what would be your last meal and drink?

A ribeye steak, rare, with grilled zucchini and a Weiss beer.

Where’s your favourite non-poker holiday destination?

My ideal holiday is with my camper van. I like to visit always new places – I get bored easily.

I’m never going camping; I love to free-park on carefully picked locations with great views and nobody around.

You can play poker every day for a year or play no poker for a whole 12 months – which do you choose?

I have been without any poker for a year already and didn’t miss it so much. Having to play daily for a year it would be complete hell for me.

Who is the person you don’t have around anymore that you miss the most?

My Dad, he was my biggest fan. He would be sleeplessly refreshing the chipcounts or reports continuously during WSOP even if they would rarely update on me or be accurate. All the night till morning [he did it], because of nine hours of time difference. I haven’t played WSOP for 10 years after I lost him.

Which person would you most like to meet but never have?

Satoshi Nakamoto [the presumed pseudonymous inventor of bitcoin who created and deployed bitcoin’s original reference implementation].

When’s the last time life put you on tilt?

I get very pissed every time something goes wrong because I didn’t double check it when I could, even when somebody else made the mistake, because I never expect nobody to be accurate.

If you couldn’t play the WSOP Main Event next year, which family member would you put into the action in your place?

I hate No Limit Hold’em so much that I simply wouldn’t play the Main Event, it is too long for my taste. I would put my older brother in; he would love to play and probably do well in that field.

What’s your best poker skill?

Being able to keep my advantages for many years with a low profile. In many things, it took a decade or more before a consensus is reached that what I have been doing for that long it is actually the best way to play a certain spot.

And your biggest leak?

Refraining to share genuinely my poker vision on things with other players can also limit my own growth.

If you could make one rule change to poker, what would it be?

In a heads-up spot, once a day, plus once at the final table, each player should be able to have the turn or river cancelled, reshuffled and redealt.

We love that one – random! OK, final question. You have just ten seconds with the person of your dreams… what do you say?

Never meet your heroes!

Dario absolutely slayed our 15 Bigs, revealing some hugely personal memories of his father and opening up about not sharing his poker knowledge and his love of PLO over NLHE. You can buy your action in Dario’s upcoming PLO poker events right here on his dedicated PokerStake selling page. Dedicated to his favorite poker format, he’s a formidable challenge for anyone taking him on at the felt!