Dario De Toffoli

Dario De Toffoli was born in Venice on 4 August 1953. He began his career as a chemist before moving into the games world, where he founded the company Studiogiochi and created numerous game events. A versatile player, he has won more than 60 medals at the Mind Sports Olympiad and claimed the Pentamind World Championship—awarded to the world’s best all-round games player—in both 2002 and 2012. In 2006, he received a special lifetime achievement award from the Personalità Ludica dell’Anno (PLDA) for his overall contribution to games.

De Toffoli’s impact on games extends to event organization. In the 1990s, he and his company staged Italy’s first five Festivals of Games, the largest such events in the country. He also established the Giocatore dell’Anno competition for Mind Sports players and the Venice International Backgammon Tournament. Additionally, he founded the Premio Archimede (Archimedes Prize), a board game design competition dedicated to Alex Randolph, whose winner has their game displayed in the Swiss Museum of Games.

Backgammon

As a Scrabble player in Italian, De Toffoli achieved multiple top-three finishes in major competitions and won the Masters in 1997. In backgammon, he wrote two Italian-language books—one on the rules and The Big Book of Backgammon—and is credited with helping popularize the game in Italy. He maintained a world rating above 1500 at the end of the 2009 season and helped build the European backgammon scene by establishing the Venice International Backgammon Tournament, one of the first two major European backgammon events and now a key stop on the European Backgammon Tour.

Poker

In poker, De Toffoli wrote an early Italian book on Texas Hold’em and co-wrote two more with Max Pescatori. His most important poker work is The Big Book of Poker, which explains winning strategies from a game theorist’s perspective.

He is a leading technician in the game, often consulted as a commentator, though he has not won a major cash tournament. In 2008, he became the Amateur Poker World Champion, a non-money event. He is also a successful live tournament player, having won multiple titles at the Italian Series of Poker Championship, including events in Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo and No Limit Hold’em between 2016 and 2024, making him the leading player in that championship.