Frankie C is a pro YouTuber and poker player whose ambition in the game is to win a WSOP bracelet. He's also a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board.
What were your poker highlights of 2024?
The WPT $5M Freeroll event is the most recent thing in my mind; that was a pretty sick experience. I don't remember any poker atmosphere quite like it. It was new faces I didn’t recognize, first-time players, a million dollars up top, and so much more. That stands out for me.
Anything else?
The next part would be playing poker with Jungleman in Taiwan. We were going to all these deep-stacked, high-stakes cash games together and trying to speak Chinese with people who only spoke Chinese.
He's a very entertaining player to watch. You have to have a fun Jungle story.
Dan is super famous in Asia. All the players know him. He's got this very reserved energy at times, but I had a moment with him where he announced to the table that this would be the last hand right before he won a $35,000 pot.
And right after he won the pot, one of the players watching the game says, ‘Jungle, can't leave now.’ And he genuinely feels a little bit guilty or bad. He says, ‘I guess I could play a couple more hands.’ Everyone was dying laughing. It was a really funny moment, especially with the Chinese-English dynamic.
And the guy who asked him to stay hadn't spoken English the whole time. It was very, very funny.
And you had an exciting, life-changing moment earlier this year. You had a baby with Kitty Kuo.
Yes. The birth was such a peak moment in my life. There have been all these ‘Wows!’ along the way. Now he's 10 months old, and he'll surprise you when you have these very intimate moments with him, kind of out of the blue. It’s been just pure love and awe.
Were you present at his birth?
I was. Yeah, I watched him come out.
I have a funny story between me and Kitty. The fact that we would have him in the hospital, and he would never cry. Never. We would hear all the babies in the other rooms crying and crying. And he just would never cry. It's the sweetest little thing.
And as soon as we left the hospital and took him home, that completely changed. Suddenly there was a lot of crying all the time. We joked with each other about how he bluffed us in the hospital. He wanted to make sure he could come home with us.
What was the most challenging part of 2024 in poker?
The most challenging part of 2024 poker-wise has got to be this hundred-day challenge to win $100K, which I embarked on. It is a hundred days of poker in a row to make a hundred thousand dollars.
What's been the hardest part?
Getting in the hours, dealing with the losses, and going through some downswings. It all makes you feel like you're not good enough to play a lot of the time, especially when you're going through downswings.
It’s dealing with the blows to my confidence and related to ego getting hit as well as you losing. It makes you question how good you are at the game.
That’s been the hardest part – putting the hours in while raising a child. And then, when you do get the hours in, just not getting the results you wanted.
I have to remind myself I know how to play the game. I’m good enough. This happens. It's a part of the game.
How do you battle that heavy negative energy that can come with a downswing?
I'm a big believer in energy. That's how I ended up selecting my closest friends. Most of the time, it's people who have a very positive energy about them, and they want to learn and get better in life and poker.
It's always been the gym for me when I want to get the negative energy out of my system. I don't know if everyone feels like this, but I visualize it very well when I'm in the gym. I visualize myself holding the award and on the same stage as Arnold Schwarzenegger. The gym reminds you that you're just on a journey to that destination you can feel and visualize. Then I feel better.
What are your plans for 2025?
Poker goals are similar to last year's; I'm just trying to win my first big tournament.
My life goals are the more significant emphasis. I want to pass the HSK 1 exam in Chinese. So basically, nailing down all the introductory-level Chinese.
Regarding content goals, I've been locked in on YouTube lately. But I want to grow my other social media platforms. I'm dedicating myself to posting one Instagram and one TikTok per day, with more short-form content.
My fellow content creators are getting cool brand deals because of their shorts and Instagram. This year, I will post one per day and not set a follower goal. But if I post one per day, I'm sure that the followers will come.
Watch Frankie and Kitty talking about life with a newborn on the most watched PokerOrg video of 2024.
Follow Frankie on YouTube and on Instagram.
Feature image courtesy of WPT.
