PROFILE
Name: Federico Butteroni
Age: 25
Home Country: Italy
Carrying the Italian flag as his country’s Last Man Standing, Federico Butteroni is going to have some work ahead of him if he wants to capture the title of “World Champion” at the 2015 World Series of Poker Championship Event’s “November Nine.” Butteroni will be sitting at the final table as the short stack remaining in the tournament with only 6.2 million in chips.
There is limited information on Butteroni’s previous tournament success. His first tournament cash came in the Italian Poker Tour’s Main Event in Sanremo, Italy, in 2010, but then he dropped from the poker world for a few years. In 2014, Butteroni resurfaced in Australia, where he has done the bulk of his damage in the tournament poker world. Butteroni had four of his previous six cashes prior to 2015 at the Crown Casino in Perth’s weekly tournaments. It seems the 2015 WSOP was where Butteroni’s visions of poker grandeur were born, however.
As a part of the “Monster Stack” tournament, Butteroni would finish in 20th place to earn his largest tournament score ever, $45,633. He would follow that up with a win in one of the Rio Daily Deepstack tournaments (for another $31,756 payday) and cash in Event $59, the $1500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, to drive his career earnings up to $103,006. Wherever he finishes in the 2015 WSOP Championship Event, Butteroni is ensured of his best poker payday ever.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day 1(C): 52,650
Day 2(B): 200,500
Day 3: 125,500
Day 4: 1.507 million
Day 5: 2.945 million
Day 6: 4.98 million
KEY HAND
By far Butteroni’s crowning moment of the 2015 WSOP Championship Event came on Day 7 when he reached his apex in chips. After a raise from Joe McKeehen, Butteroni put out a three bet from the cutoff of 1.825 million chips. In the big blind, Matt Guan was salivating as the action came to him and, after a few seconds for show, he would push for his remaining stack. McKeehen got out of the way, but Butteroni put the fear into Guan as he called immediately.
There was a good reason for it…Butteroni’s pocket Aces dominated Guan’s pocket Queens. A J-10-8 flop drew some concern for Butteroni, but the five on the turn and the King on the river didn’t change the situation as it was pre-flop with Butteroni ahead. In knocking out Guan in 13th place, Butteroni hit 16.27 million in chips and would ride the stack to the “November Nine” festivities this fall. He’ll have to hope for some fortune if he is to rise above the ninth place stack he currently has in front of him.