Tavolacci Cuts Down 'November Niner'

Event 1 (Day 1)
Level 7 (200/400/50)
Total Entries: 301

Frank Tavolacci (Pound Ridge, NY)

There may be no greater honor in modern poker than that of making the WSOP Main Event Final Table, as it is always one of, if not the, biggest and toughest field to navigate and just making it to that spot is an massive success and a testament to a player's ability.

Since they moved the Final Table from the actual end of the summer series to November, for television, reporting and advertising reasons, those players lucky enough to make it to the Final Table have been dubbed 'The November Nine' and while there are great players with amazing poker resumes in today's field, there is only one player that can lay claim to that title.

Michael Esposito (Seaford, NY) made the 2012 WSOP ME Final Table and cashed for just under $1,300,000 in 7th place, but just because he has that result on his resume, doesn't mean that players in today's field are going to shy away from him, as Frank Tavolacci (Pound Ridge, NY) just doubled up through Esposito in a recent hand.

The action was picked up late, but by the post-hand conversation, it seemed that Esposito would check call a bet on the [10s][Qc][10c] flop and then the two players would get it all-in on the [8c] turn with Esposito tabling [9c][10d] and Travolacci turning over [Ac][Kc]for the nut flush.

The [2d]would fall on the river and Travolacci would complete a double up, as Esposito had him covered after chipping up over the last few levels.

When the dust cleared, Travolacci would collect a close to 50,000 chip pot and he'd confirm Esposito's question as to whether he was willing to get it all-in on the flop.

The hand was going to get all the chips in the middle regardless, it was just a matter of time and while it is still early and we aren't planning on concerning ourselves with chip counts just yet, Travolacci looks like one of the biggest stacks in the room, mid-way through Level 7.