PROFILE
Name: Thomas Cannuli
Age: 23
Hometown: Erma, NJ
The youngest player on the felt, New Jersey’s Thomas Cannuli is one of the “wild cards” in the 2015 World Series of Poker Championship Event’s “November Nine” due to the fact that he has little visible background for players to determine his skill level. It is obvious that Cannuli has some poker tricks up his sleeve, otherwise he wouldn’t be sitting in sixth place with his 12.25 million stack.
Cannuli earned his first cash in making the final table of a $1500 No Limit Hold’em tournament during the 2011 East Coast Poker Championships at Turning Stone Casino in New York, where he would eventually finish in seventh place for a nominal score. In 2013, Cannuli earned his first WSOP cash in the “Little One for One Drop,” finishing 477th for a $1797 score. Since that time, Cannuli has only earned three more cashes (including one at the 2014 WSOP) before making his big breakthrough at this year’s Championship Event.
Prior to the 2015 WSOP, Cannuli had around $50,000 in tournament poker earnings, making the million dollar payday he’s already received his biggest tournament score of his career. If Cannuli is able to work his way to poker’s World Championship, it would be a Moneymaker-esque story if there ever was one.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day 1(C): DID NOT REPORT
Day 2(B): 185,300
Day 3: 584,500
Day 4: 2.271 million
Day 5: 5.07 million
Day 6: 6.22 million
KEY HAND
Cannuli is not afraid to push his stack to the center of the felt, as was especially shown during Day 7 when he was battling for a “November Nine” seat. After Neil Blumenfield opened the action and Zvi Stern pushed it up to 2.175 million, Cannuli moved his remaining stack of around 13 million chips to the center of the felt. Blumenfield immediately gave up his cards but Stern, continuing with his molasses-like play during the final days of the event, took five minutes before he decided to muck his holdings. That hand would push Cannuli up to his high point for Day 7, 16.2 million, which he would ride to the WSOP Championship Event final table.
