Big Showww: James Calderaro Looks for Back-to-Back $25K PLO Titles
Making a final table in any WSOP event is a long-odds investment. A $25,000 event with plenty of top players makes it even tougher. Getting that deep requires long days, deep focus, plenty of skill, and an occasional lucky break.
James Calderaro (aka The Big Showww Caldo) has not only done that in the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, but has a chance to win the title two years in a row.
“An accomplishment of winning back to back, it would be overwhelming.”
“An accomplishment of winning back to back, it would be overwhelming,” he says. “I'm going for it 100 percent and I really think I already have it. This is really just going to be great. I'm looking forward to three-peating. I want to copy my buddy 'Grinder' Michael Mizrachi]. So I'm going to get the repeat and then go for the three-peat.”
A second bracelet would be nice, but his bling doesn’t stay in his hands too long. He has a tradition of giving his trophies to his children. His WPT trophy went to his first-born son, and his second son was given the bracelet from this event last year. If he can accomplish the feat again, this bracelet will go to his daughter.
“I've always promised my kids a trophy,” he says. “If it's a WPT, it’s a trophy and if it's WSOP, it's a bracelet. And I always promised them the trophy and I was going to get every one of them at least one.”
With one grandchild now and another on the way, however, Calderaro now has extended the gift giving.
“Now I've got to work on it because my daughter just had a grandbaby,” he says. “So now there's a lot of work for me. I've got grandkid No. 2 coming, so I guess I have a lot more work to do. I thought I just had to get three and I was done, but I guess I've got to continue.”
Getting that top prize in the PLO event won’t be easy as he faces off with five other extremely talented players with plenty of skins on the wall. Five-time bracelet winner and 1998 Main Event champion Scotty Nguyen leads the field with Calderaro second. The others four players remaining include two-time bracelet winners Shaun Deeb and Ben Yu as well as Jason Koon and Ryan Tosoc.
Despite the tough competition, Calderaro felt confident he had a good shot to win another title. The 51-year-old real estate investor and regular card player was ready for action when PokerNews caught up with him when the final table of six got underway on Saturday.
Calderaro grew up in New York City, but now calls Venice Beach, Fla., home. He grew up playing cards at a young age at family reunions. That experience paid off after retiring from the nightclub business in 1994. In this previous business life, Calderaro owned a restaurant and Top 40s dance club in Florida.
Growing up, Calderaro was into sports and boating but was also always interested in business. He still works in real estate while also playing a lot of WSOP events and World Poker Tour stops.
“I think the key is being able to lay down some hands.”
That competitiveness from high school and business eventually grew into a love for poker, and he now has $3.9 million in live tournament winnings. That includes $1.3 million in this event last summer for his first bracelet. Calderaro also won the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open in 2014 for $271,103 with numerous other deep runs and cashes.
After so much success in this event, what are some of his keys in advancing in these big buy-in and big field PLO tournaments?
“I think the key is being able to lay down some hands,” he says. “You have to lay down some hands even if you think you’re right. I like to throw away hands that I don't want to second guess. I think prolonging your tournament and knowing that I'll get another hand, I think is more positive than thinking that you could be getting bluffed in a situation. I think discipline is really important.”
Follow along with Calderaro's progress on the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha final table. PokerNews has you covered with all the live updates you can ask for.
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas. His work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions. He is also the host of the True Gambling Stories podcast, available on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn Radio, Spotify, Stitcher, PokerNews.com, HoldemRadio.com, and TrueGamblingStories.com.
