Nick Funaro Has Support from Poker Pro Big Brother at WPT bestbet Final Table
Frank Funaro has over $3.2 million in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob. But on Tuesday, his younger brother might have something he doesn't — a World Poker Tour (WPT) title.
Nick Funaro has reached the WPT bestbet Scramble Championship final table, which began at 2 p.m. ET, and he could be hours away from joining the WPT Champions Club and receiving the $347,850 first place prize. PokerNews spoke with the final table competitor to find out more about his poker background, and see if there's any sort of family rivalry with his brother, who is in attendance at bestbet Jacksonville cheering on little brother.
Eric Afriat Chasing Darren Elias' WPT Record
Family Affair
Funaro entered the final table with 3,680,000 chips, over 70 big blinds, good for second in chips. Eric Afriat, who is attempting to tie Darren Elias' record with four WPT titles, held a sizable lead at 6,570,000 chips.
"I'm going to be cautious against him for sure," Funaro said of how he'll approach the big stacked Afriat at the final table. "He's going to have to be cautious against me too because I'm also big stacked. So, I think it's going to be cautious on both sides."
Funaro has has over $520,000 in live tournament cashes, and all but $100,000 of that came in January when he took down a Borgata Winter Poker Open event for $420,000. Yunkyu Song, who is also at the WPT bestbet Scramble final table, finished third in that same Borgata event. So, there is some familiarity between the two final table opponents.
The younger Funaro has a supportive rail in Jacksonville, and it just so happens to be an older brother who has a successful poker career of his own. There's no family rivalry at the poker table between them, and both support each other's journey to poker stardom.
"It's great, and he also helped me study a little bit, it's just great to have," Funaro said of having his brother in attendance.
Funaro said he "picked up poker at the same time" as his brother.
"Our friends would all kind of play, so we'd play at some home games," Funaro said of learning to play poker with his brother. "He started taking it seriously, and I kind of realized you can make a lot of money, basically, so I took it more seriously myself."
Who is the best poker player in the family? Nick didn't hesitate in answering, "he is." But if he takes down the WPT bestbet Scramble on Tuesday, the gap between the poker playing brothers will have closed a bit, and the younger sibling will have some bragging rights.
"I think it would be great if I won one and my brother didn't," Nick Funaro laughed and said of potentially winning a WPT title.
Frank Funaro doesn't have a WPT title, but he's a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion and World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) ring winner, and he has over $1.4 million in World Poker Tour cashes. But his little brother could stake claim to one title he hasn't yet accomplished.
*Images courtesy of Katerina Lukina/World Poker Tour.
