From the outside, Frankie 'Frankie C' Cucchiara seems like a young man living the poker dream, yet something’s been missing.
Since graduating from Southern Methodist University three years ago, he’s met the love of his life — fellow poker player Kitty Kuo — had a healthy baby boy, built a very popular poker YouTube channel, traveled the world playing poker, joined the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board, and recently battled some of the best players in the game in a series of heads-up matches, culminating in a $10,000 challenge versus the iconic Daniel Negreanu.
The only thing missing was a trophy. And now Frankie has one of those, courtesy of a win at Wynn Las Vegas.
Wynn for the win
“I only walked into the Wynn casino to sweat my girlfriend Kitty Kuo, who was making a deep run in the $600 mystery bounty,” Frankie said to us. “She had pulled the $25,000 bounty, the biggest prize, and had a million chips. I decided to late register for the PKO bounty tournament and ended up making the final table.”
Frankie began the final table as one of the shorter stacks but eventually made two hero calls versus the chip leader to catapult him into heads-up.
We tracked him down to get the scoop on the big win from start to finish.
One of poker's good guys has finally got the win he's been working hard for. You mentioned you ran into another popular YouTuber before you started playing that afternoon.
I did. I had a funny conversation with Johnny ‘Vibes’ Moreno, who told me he’s making a new series about trying to win a tournament. I told him I hadn't won a live tournament either.
You’ve been playing a lot of heads-up matches over the last few months so when it was down to two, you must have been confident?
I did. Once I got heads-up, I felt very comfortable. It was quite the scene. I had a 4-1 chip lead. I also had all these bounty chips next to me. But I hadn’t eaten all day. Kitty, who was my rail, fed me pizza because I didn't want to touch the food and get the chips greasy or dirty.
That had to draw a crowd…
I know. I had Kitty feeding me pizza, and I'm filming a video of all this going down and playing heads-up simultaneously. My comfort level was unmatched, thanks to the matches I had played versus Daniel [Negreanu] and Doug Polk. I feel like heads-up is my game. I felt very confident I was going to win. It feels good to have a trophy finally.
Could you share a few pointers you’ve learned from recently working with one of the game’s best, Nick Petrangelo?
You must be able to play a wider range of hands and be comfortable enough to call the flop with some backdoors and some potential for improving your hand. And be able to put the big bets in.
One key hand that brought me to the final table was a spot where I just put a really big bet on the turn with a double gutshot straight draw. On the river, it paired my card.
I think most people would think, ‘I hit a pair. So, I should just check it back, and I hope I win. Maybe I have showdown value.’ But you have to assess the situation further. Is this really showdown value?
If my opponent called me twice on the flop and turn, he should have a hand better than fourth pair. So, I took a spot that most people wouldn't — I went for the triple-barrel bluff. It was a huge pot, and thankfully he folded. And that kind of propelled me into a good position heading into the final table.
Frankie has been taking lessons from one of the world's best, Nick Petrangelo.And you had Kitty there to cheer you on?
I had promised Kitty a date night later that evening. At about midway through my tournament, Kitty got knocked out of her event. So, I knew in my head if something bad happened with my tournament, we have our date night. That made me fearless to pull the trigger in those spots.
What was the key element that you took away after the win?
That the fear of losing is going to hold back your game significantly.
Did Kitty give you any poker advice when you were down to the final table?
She just hung around as my rail. She has a very high level of trust in my game, and we have been studying together a lot lately. I don't think she said a single thing about poker. She was very supportive in so many other ways. It was a great experience to have her there.
