The second online bracelet event of the summer took place on Saturday not in the Rio but in Nevada cyberspace on WSOP.com.
Event #61, $3,333 Big Grind Online, also known as the Online High Roller, drew 424 entries (320 unique with 104 rebuys). The online tournament and real bracelet went to 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event sixth-place finisher Thomas “FLOATZ” Cannuli, who won $322,814 for the title.
Classy Cannuli Karma
Prior to the win, Cannuli had ten WSOP cashes totaling $1,477,199. But all but $50,916 of that came from his November Nine appearance in 2015. In fact, his second-biggest cash before shipping the online event was just $18,406, for finishing 691st in the 2014 WSOP Main Event.
Cannuli hails from New Jersey, one of three states to offer legalized online poker. He is perhaps best remembered for the class he exhibited in his post-elimination interview from the Main Event. Instead of bemoaning his bad luck, Cannuli thanked his rail of supporters, which included poker pro Jeff Gross and Olympian Michael Phelps, and gave a gracious exit interview.
“It’s not easy,” Cannuli said upon busting the Main Event. “It comes from playing for seven years, seeing the guys who lose $40k pots in a cash game and say nothing about it. That showed me a respect for the game. You see the other side where people are complaining every time they lose a hand. I just want to set an example and take a stand for the guys who have that etiquette, and lose like gentlemen, or women for that matter.”
Cannuli didn’t have to lose like a gentleman in the early morning hours of Sunday. Instead, he had the opportunity to celebrate becoming just the fourth player in history to win a WSOP.com gold bracelet.
It marked the second online bracelet awarded during the 2017 WSOP, after Joseph “ul_gg” Mitchell navigated a field of 1,779 runners to win Event #8, $333 WSOP.com Online Little Grind, for $122,314.
No Heads-Up FTW
The defining hand for Cannuli, who previously sat for an exclusive interview with CardsChat, came with four players remaining in Level 34 (60k/120k/12k). That is when Daniel ‘Pepperprince’ Zack limped the button with the K♣K♦, and Cannuli did the same from the small blind with the Q♥Q♣.
Adam ‘HLEDERER’ Owen then raised to 333,333 from the big with 10♥10♠. Zack called, and Cannuli limp-raised all in for more than 2.8 million. Both opponents called, and Cannuli wound up tripling up after the board ran out 3♥9♣4♠A♥Q♠.
In the final hand of the tournament, both Owen and Tara ‘BeatrixKiddo’ Cain got their stacks all-in preflop holding A♣3♥ and A♦3♣, respectively. Cannuli, who had them both covered, put them at risk with 10♥10♠. His hand held for the double-knockout after the board ran out a clean Q♦K♦2♣5♦Q♣.
From start to finish, the online bracelet tournament took 12 hours and one minute. Others who finished in the top 54 to claim a portion of the $1,335,600 prize pool included “Daluxxx” (13th for $12,688.20), Chris “sloppyklod” Klodnicki (21st for $8,814.96), and Joey “ul_gg” Mitchell (25th for $8,814.96).
Meanwhile, “Roldy” was eliminated as the bubble boy in 55th place after his ace-king failed to get lucky against the pocket kings of Owen.
Final Table Results
1 Thomas ‘FLOATZ’ Cannuli$322,815
2 Tara ‘BeatrixKiddo’ Cain$201,408
3 Adam ‘HLEDERER’ Owen$136,231
4 Daniel ‘Pepperprince’ Zack$97,232
5 Darren ‘LegionofBoom’ Rabinowitz$66,112
6 Blake ‘bk1048’ Kelso$47,547
7 Vincent ‘AllinVin138’ Moscati$34,859
8 Ryan ‘holdNfold’ Jones$26,178
9 Millard ‘Undisputed23’ Hale$20,168
The third and final online bracelet event of the summer, Event #71, $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em Championship, will take place at 2 pm PT this Friday, July 7.
