Frank Funaro of Sewell, New Jersey has been a younger gun on the rise. The East Coast grinder, who was once a staple at Atlantic Metropolis’s Borgata, had a profession yr in 2021 with $586,340 in event earnings. He’s following it up with one other huge yr in 2022 the place he’s not solely amassed greater than 1 / 4 million in earnings but additionally shipped each a World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) ring and bracelet.
PokerNews just lately caught up with Funaro, who made a deep run within the World Poker Tour (WPT) Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open (RRPO) $3,500 Championship at Seminole Exhausting Rock Hollywood in South Florida. Sadly for Funaro, his quest at a WPT title resulted in Forty eighth place (out of 1,541 runners) after a reasonably ugly unhealthy beat.
“They Barry Greenstein-ed Me”
In response to updates from the occasion, the hand came about in Degree 21 (15,000/25,000/25,000) when Funaro raised from the hijack and Jakub Paulik shopped for round 1.3 million from the button.
Funaro snap-called with pocket aces and Paulik tabled six-four. Sadly for Funaro, a six appeared on the flop and a 4 adopted on the flip to offer Paulik two pair and the double. Funaro was left with simply 80,000 whereas Paulik doubled to 2.6 million, one of many greatest stacks within the event.
“I really feel prefer it’s been taking place to me rather a lot just lately, however I’m used to it.”
“He was in a giant pot blind-versus-blind and I feel he possibly received a little bit pissed off,” Funaro stated of the hand. “I opened the 2 palms earlier than and he shoved from the large blind, and the subsequent time I opened he shoved once more.”
Whereas Funaro is a seasoned skilled, do such beats nonetheless sting?
“It positively does,” he admitted. “I assume I’m used to this. The identical factor kind of occurred a few WPTs in the past. Aces in opposition to eights. I really feel prefer it’s been taking place to me rather a lot just lately, however I’m used to it.”
Funaro was in a position to spin his 4 bigs as much as a 20-big-blind stack earlier than busting jacks in opposition to ace-king. He obtained $16,500 for his Forty eighth-place end.
“They Barry Greenstein-ed me. It was a rollercoaster of a day.”
Regardless of the unhealthy beat, Funaro, who owns some industrial actual property (part of a shopping mall) in New Jersey is a fan of South Florida and is definitely seeking to relocate prior to later.
Delivery a Gold Bracelet
Frank Funaro in WPT RRPO motion.
Funaro has amassed slightly below $1 million in profession lifetime reside event earnings in keeping with the Hendon Mob. He’s additionally received a fantastic deal extra taking part in on-line; the truth is, his largest rating thus far was $219,089 for ending runner-up to WSOP Principal Occasion champ Joe McKeehen within the 2020 WSOP On-line Occasion #14: $3,200 Excessive Curler.
Earlier this yr, Funaro captured his first WSOP gold ring by successful the Might On-line Circuit Occasion #7: $320 NLH 6-Max for $19,526, and 5 months later received October’s WSOP On-line Occasion #29: $1,000 No-Restrict Maintain’em Championship for $94,097 and his first gold bracelet.
“It was a number of enjoyable,” Funaro stated of his bracelet victory. “It was the final one on Sunday. My girlfriend was over on the time. It was a cool second.
Funaro truly just lately obtained his gold bracelet, however it wasn’t straightforward to get.
“They saved making an attempt to name me and I don’t actually reply random numbers. They stated they tried to name 5 instances and I by no means answered, so it made sense why it didn’t are available for a month.”
Extra just lately, Funaro made a deep run within the 2022 WSOP ending in forty fourth place for $214,200.
Whereas Funaro’s run within the 2022 WPT RRPO ended, he was fast to leap into the $25,000 Excessive Curler going down throughout the room. He additionally confirmed that he’ll be making the journey to Las Vegas to compete within the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas from December 12-20.
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Take heed to extra concerning the WPT World Championship on the brand new PokerNews Podcast!
*Photos courtesy of WPT/Drew Amato.
Chad Holloway
Government Editor U.S.
Government Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.
