2018 Gambling Olympics Participant Profile: Pete Manzinelli

2018 Gambling Olympics Participant Profile: Pete Manzinelli article feature image

The Highlights

  • Pete Manzinelli is one of the participants in the inaugural Gambling Olympics.
  • He's a true legend (in his own mind) and the inventor of the world's first physical cryptocurrency.
  • Manz might be the most motivated of all the competitors. 

The 2018 Gambling Olympics is a two-day, 12-person contest taking place in Las Vegas on July 9-10. The buy-in is $2,500, and the winner gets $10,000.

Before, during and after the Gambling Olympics, we will provide extensive coverage via participant profiles, event breakdowns and live in-person analysis. Be sure to follow all the action in the Gambling Olympics section of the site.

The Manz

Pete Manzinelli and the Gambling Olympics are a match made in speculation heaven. He’s brash and full of bravado. He’s one of the wildest DFS touts in the business — he’s known to endorse rostering fullbacks and backup quarterbacks on small slates — but that unique approach has led to success in large guaranteed prize pools.

The Manz has also made his mark on the poker world, appearing on "Poker Night in America" and creating popular(ish) videos for the PokerTube YouTube channel. Finally, he is most famously known as the inventor of the world's first physical cryptocurrency: ManzCoin. He lives his life by a simple motto: "Get paid, get laid." If he wins this event, he'll probably get both.

Manz was gracious enough to answer a few questions for us heading into the inaugural Gambling Olympics.

Q: How did you first get involved with gambling?

Manz: I came out of the womb gambling. No, seriously: The obstetrician gave me 3-1 on my umbilical cord being more than the 50-centimeter average. Of course, I shipped it with a preternatural 69. The rest, as they say, is history.

Q: What qualifies you to participate in this prestigious tournament?

Manz: The real question is what qualifies the rest of these jamokez to even be in the same room as me? Looking at you specifically, Brandon Adamz. What have you ever accomplished?

I think my body of work speaks for itself, but I will say that I am the rare jack of all trades, master of all of those same trades. You name a degen activity, and I’ll tell u how I conquered it. DFS? Finished in the top 30 of the Milly Maker last year and nearly completed the DraftKings pizza challenge. Poker? My jersey is retired in the rafters of the Excalibur poker room, and I battled head-to-head with Daniel Negreanu before bubbling the $3,000 no-limit event at the 2017 World Series of Poker. Crypto? Released an investing masterclass and then invented my own revolutionary coin. Do u want me to keep going? There is not enough ink in the world to spill on my bona fides. For more detailz check out the YouTubez page of my personal assistant, Pete Overzetz.

Q: What is your proudest “degen” moment?

Manz: In last year’s Broathalon, an alcohol-soaked series of athletic eventz that I founded . . .

. . . I won the beer-mile competition (four beers, four quarter-mile lapz) despite throwing up and having to run an extra penalty lap. I challenge u to find a more courageous and inspiring event in sports history.

Q: What do you feel will be your strongest and weakest events?

Manz: Strongest — Everything. Weakest — Nothing. I guess if there is one event I could struggle in, it’s predicting the standings, as the only thing I can fathom is myself in first place and everyone else tied for 12th.

Q: How many hours of prep are you putting into this?

Manz: Count up how many hourz there are in a day, multiply it by the number of days remaining before the Gambling Olympics, and then add a few more. That’s how much. I don’t sleep anymore — I play Yahtzee. I don’t eat anymore — I play beer pong. I don’t have sex anymore — haha, yeah right. I still get it in on the reg.

Q: Who do you think is the favorite to win?

Manz: Don’t insult me with this question. The Manz was built, nay, sculpted by the godz, for this event. Everyone else is playing for second.

Q: Who is your pick to finish dead last?

Manz: Initially I said Jonny Balez because of fatigue/stamina concernz heading into the event, but after seeing Brandon Adamz' response to this same question, I have now made crushing Adamz in these Olympics my singular goal, and I will ensure he finishez dead last via a cornucopia of mental, physical and emotional tacticz.

Analysis

The Manz is confident in his poker skills, but he's going up against some heavyweights in Adams and Scott Blumstein, who are not going to be intimidated by his flat brim and blockers. In DFS, he'll be a clear underdog behind Bales, Peter Jennings and Adam Levitan. Finally, he’ll need to do better in the crypto market than ManzCoin is doing if he's to have any hope to win that event. There's also a chance that he'll be worn out for the Main Event after participating in the Broathalon, which he might care about even more than Gambling Olympics.

Where Manz should have a true edge is Beer Pong. Rumor has it that he's put in his 10,000 hours. On top of that, he should be motivated. As inspiring as Manz is, most of the other competitors have larger audiences than he does and have enjoyed more mainstream success than he has. Of all the participants, he might be the most incentivized to prepare and exert energy: A Gambling Olympics win might mean more for his #brand than it would for anyone else's. When Manz says he’s spending every waking hour training for this event, we should believe him.

How the Manz wins: He pushes all his chips into the middle and applies constant pressure to the more analytical favorites. His aggressive style pays off in Blackjack and Acey-Deucey, and he finishes first in the Crypto Portfolio thanks to skyrocketing s—t coins. He also finds success with some longshot sports bets and DFS plays and ultimately wraps up the tournament with a first-place finish in Beer Pong. He spends the rest of his trip making it rain at the clubs.

How the Manz loses: He is thoroughly outclassed in DFS, Poker and Crypto Portfolio, finishing in the bottom half in all three events. He also falls behind in some of the analytical games such as Connect Four and Yahtzee and ends the tournament in the bottom three. Despite his results, Manz finds a way to sell his performance as a success on YouTube by accusing the other competitors of cheating and collusion. He spends the rest of his trip making it rain at the clubs.

About the Author
Gambler and DFS player lucky enough to cover both for The Action Network and FantasyLabs. Previous work has appeared at DraftKings, Roster Coach and Rotoviz.

Follow Matt LaMarca @MattLaMarca on Twitter/X.

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