I started getting calls from people all over the world interested in my win. I won that tournament and the prize of $20,580, which is the face value of all the money in the bank in the game. If I were to play Monopoly with you, I would probably win because I know the tricks, but in the world championship everyone knows them, so fortune and luck are important. There were 27 players from all over the world, as well as fans, journalists, and friends and parents of players. That was odd because I can see the real one from my bedroom. In Macau, we played in a huge hotel called the Venetian, and I was playing in front of a replica of St Mark’s bell tower. My prize included two flights to play in the world championship in China, that same year. My girlfriend, Lisa, now my wife, wanted to go back to Venice because she had work the next morning, but I said: “I’m sorry, I’m winning.” By 8pm I had won the national championship. The first day I lost all my matches, but on the second I started winning. We both qualified to play in the Italian national championship the next year in Milan.
One of them got drunk before the competition and spent two hours playing in silence while wearing sunglasses, but still managed to finish first. I clicked and signed up first to a regional tournament in Spilimbergo, 60 miles north-east of Venice.
