Joe Ricardo put on an impressive performance during the Fall 2025 Poker Palooza Series at Peppermill Reno that saw him grab top honors in the Player of the Series race. The poker player from Sacramento cashed 12 times during the 26-event lineup, and he took his career tournament earnings over $200,000.
We caught up with the excited winner a few moments after he had learned he claimed the title, and here is what he had to say.
Poker Live Updates: Alright, congratulations to you Joe, our Player of the Series. How does it feel to just do so well over the course of this whole tournament series that you took down the major award for it?
Ricardo: “Look, like, I’ve been playing this series for the past five times, and it’s been such a reward to play every event. It’s really hard to dedicate a week-and-a-half to this because, you know, I’m not a full-time player. But when you get to the end of the series and you’re that high on the leader board, it’s really super rewarding. So I’m super happy with how I’m getting rewarded with how I play. It’s really hard to play every game good enough. Winning a Player of the Series is also longevity and the ability to play all the games. I really am happy with how I played in all the no-limit hold’em events, but with the rest of the events that I played I really played my best with PLO, the mixed games, and I’m really happy with how I played. I really wanted to make sure that I represented how this series should be and make sure that I could play all the events well, and I tried my best, and I think it really showed for the series.”
PLU: You said the other day that you came into this with the belief that you could win this award. What kind of just inspired you and what clicked in your brain to say, “Hey, I’m going to go push for this and do it?”
Ricardo: “Yeah, so, because the reason why is I know how I am as a person, I know how I could play throughout the series, with how the points are for the whole series is. You don’t have to just make cashes for the big events. If you played well throughout all the events, you could win. I know I would play no-limit hold’em, because that’s the majority of the events. I could play PLO, I could play the mixed games, and I know I could play my best, and I knew that I was at the top of my game for how this year is going to be, so I knew that I was a big favorite. And so, I just knew that I could win this, play the series.”
PLU: How much does having a point system like this and an award at the end push you to play all the events? It’s fun watching everyone in the room, hearing you’re checking on each other all over the room to see where everyone is in the race. It makes for a really cool atmosphere. Would you agree?
Ricardo: “For me, when I played for the Player of the Series it was just so rewarding, because I was the best player overall through the whole series. I knew that I could tell everybody I was the better player for the whole series, because there’s so many events. For some people, it doesn’t matter, but for the people who played throughout the whole series, they know that I was the best player for the whole series.”
PLU: You cashed in 12 of 26 events that you cast, and that’s a cash rate that any poker player would be happy with.
Ricardo: “Look, I’m not gonna lie, I got a little lucky throughout the whole event, so I’m not gonna say, like, I played … well, I did play well, but I’m not gonna say, like, I’m the best player. Because if you look throughout the players, they’re good. There are some good players I had trouble with, you know we were going eye-to-eye. But the thing is that throughout the whole time, I knew I was gonna do well, and I know that I had the perseverance to keep going through every event. I played 80% of the events, and I knew that I could just keep going. So that’s just how I am, and I knew that I was gonna win players in the series.”
PLU: You’re from Sacramento nearby, and you play a lot in this region overall. What specifically about the tournament series that Peppermill runs and brings you back?
Ricardo: “Honestly, the thing that brought me back to the Peppermill was literally playing Player of the Series because it’s un-raked, we didn’t have to pay into it. It was literally just we played all the events because, you know, I don’t agree with just playing no-limit hold’em. You had an advantage if you played PLO, the mixed events. I really appreciate that about this series. So, if you keep playing and you keep working hard and you keep persevering throughout the whole experience, you could win a player in the series, and that’s what I felt.”
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