The first big buy-in of the 2025 WSOP kicks off Friday, and the $25K No-Limit Heads-Up Championship is already stacked with talent.
Daniel Negreanu, Jeremy Ausmus, Chance Kornuth, Patrick Leonard, Scott Seiver, and Andrew Lichtenberger headline a field that reads like a who's who of poker.
Flick through the list, and there's a name that might stick out. Frankie Cucchiara doesn't have tens of millions of dollars in tournament winnings. His biggest ever live cash was just over $50,000 in the 2023 WSOP Main Event. Just over double the buy-in for this bracelet event.
Despite that, he managed to sell 50% of his action in the $25K event with a 0.92 markup, and he's ready to repay those investors to the max.
Frankie says... bring it on
It's fair to say that some players, looking through this list, might see his name and think, 'Yum, yum.'
But Frankie C has been practicing for this event for a long time, and over the past few months he's taken on and defeated some of the best players in the world. He's already beaten Negreanu and Leonard heads-up, and he also came out on top against Doug Polk, once considered the very best heads-up player in the world.
Is he a dog in the event? Sure. But he's a dog with a bite. And we think Frankie has got what it takes to spring some surprises. Can he spring six of them and win the bracelet? It would be one of the feel-good stories of the summer.
With the biggest moment of his poker career just hours away, we caught up with Frankie for his thoughts — and his mindset — heading into battle.
"There's no one that scares me," Frankie said. "I hope I get the well-known crushers to start so that my next opponents are intimidated when they see who I just beat.
"Tomorrow's the biggest day of my life, and I couldn't be more excited for it."
