Chris Torina spent over 10 years in law enforcement in the state of Florida and 6.5 of those years was spent in the narcotics division. His time in the drug enforcement division was very rewarding for him as he helped clean up neighborhoods that had problems with drugs and did his best to see that his fellow law enforcement officers went back to their families after a day’s work.
When 9/11 happened, Torina who is a native of Manhattan went back with a team of cops to help with the recovery efforts. It was during this period of time that he realized that life was extremely short and it was important for him to pursue what he was really passionate about in life. He was looking to start something of his own as he comes from a family of entrepreneurs and enterprising individuals. It took him a couple of years to finally discover what he wanted to do going forward and that realization came when he was watching Season 1 of the World Poker Tour (WPT), Episode 1 – which was the WPT Five Diamond at Bellagio.
Chris Torina did not have a lot of experience playing poker but he wanted to give it a shot and try something that was outside of law enforcement. He ended up playing a number of poker home games where the buy-ins were between $10-$40.  On few occasions, Torina and a group of buddies would travel to the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Tampa and play a few games. However these small poker games did not really satisfy Torina who then decided to take a trip in 2007 to Las Vegas.
He managed to secure a seat at a WPT event that was scheduled at the Mirage and it was here that he had a major breakthrough that finally convinced him it was time for him to give up his job as a law enforcement officer in 2008 and pursue a business venture of his own. Torina decided to start a poker training company that would offer both live coaching and online poker coaching. He had strong competition from the likes of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Academy and the WPT Boot Camp but he was confident that there was a niche market where his poker training services would be in demand.
Torina hired three well known poker players to be a part of his poker training company and brought on Michael Mizrachi, Tristan Wade and Mike Matusow who travelled all over the United States coaching and training poker players, especially in markets where the WPT and WSOP tours where prominent. Torina’s partner at that time, Katherine who is now his wife was instrumental in helping him decide on the name of his company which he named DeepStacks University.
The poker training business was successful for a number of years until the industry was rocked by Black Friday. Torina soon realized that his poker training business was struggling and it was important for him to diversify if he wanted to continue his business. Once again it was Katherine who came to his assistance and encouraged him to start a poker tour under the brand name of DeepStacks Poker Tour.
Just like his poker training business, he already stiff competition from the likes of the WSOP Circuit and the Heartland Poker Tour who had been around the country for a number of years. However Torina forged ahead by using his contacts and friends in the casino industry to get them to partner with him to host his DeepStacks Poker Tour. They agreed to do so on a trial basis and Torina staked his events and leveraged his relationships to make each stop a success.
Katherine urged Torina to meet Adam Pliska, the WPT CEO in 2013 and after a couple of meetings they decided to merge the two tours into one called the WPTDeepStacks. They tried a couple of tournaments in 2014 and based on the response, they decided to do it on a large scale in 2015, hosting a total of 14 events across the United States and overseas. The success of the WPTDeepStacks was very encouraging and the WPT started talks with Torina in 2016 about a possible acquisition.
The acquisition was successfully completed in January 2017 and was one of the biggest achievements for Torina who started the tour from scratch. He continues to be a major part of the WPTDeepStacks tour where he serves as the executive director. His goal is to expand into new markets, enter into venue deals for longer periods of time and bring in a stronger WPT visibility at WPTDeepStacks events.