Growing from the Gardens: Satellite Spectacular Winner Adrian Gallardo Earns 1st WPT Cash

By Sean Chaffin

The big momentum continues for Gardens Casino qualifier Adrian Gallardo (pictured) in the WPT Borgata Poker Open. After winning a $5,000 WPT Passport package in the property’s Satellite Spectacular V, the 33-year-old from Orange County, California, has turned his satellite win into a deep run.

“I’m feeling really good about my first WPT cash,” says Gallardo, who splits his time between playing poker for a living and driving for Uber. “I’m just ready to see where it takes me and ready for the challenge ahead.”

After entering Day 3 with 323,000 chips, Gallardo hopes for more than a small cash. Friends and family have been blowing his phone up to get updates on his progress.

This isn’t his first successful run at the tables. Gallardo has almost $37,000 in live tournament winnings and had a nice performance in WPT Gardens Poker Festival during the preliminary events. He won a $250 Monster Stack Turbo event for $13,460. Later in a $275 event, he finished runner-up for $7,210 and also had a seventh-place finish in another $250 event for $4,130.

The success came after some time working on his game and helping to rejuvenate his mental approach.

“First of all, you’ve got to love to play,” he says. “If you’re not liking it, you’ve got to do something else to really refresh yourself. I took two months off because I was just miserable playing and it wasn’t fun for me. It kind of reenergized me and got that passion back.”

That certainly seems to have worked. During his East Coast trip, Gallardo planned to use some of his winnings to visit New York for the first time if he busted out of the tournament. That trip will have to wait a bit longer and may be put on hold even longer if he can keep progressing throughout the tournament.

A big cash and his days as an Uber driver may be over.

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.