New Jersey cash-game pro Thomas Cannuli was all in for his last 4m when Pierre Neuville, chip leader at the time, called and put him at risk.
Neuville turned over A♦ 9♠ but Cannuli flipped A♥ K♥ to hold the big advantage.
Running over from the rail to check the hands Esfandiari saw the set-up and said "We're ahead. Ace-king to ace-nine!" back to fellow railbirds Jeff Gross and Brian Rast.
When you've got that much poker power rooting for you (we assume they have a piece of Cannuli's action), it was inevitable Cannuli would hold and carry on.
And so he did. From there it was a steady climb up and now he's part of the November Nine with more than a good chance of turning his (their) $10k investment into $7.6m.
Primarily a cash-game player with just $52,325 in career live tournament earnings Cannuli still feels good about his chances, as he told Bluff Magazine:
“I’m very confident in myself. I haven’t had a lot of exposure and that’s why a lot of people don’t know about me.
"That’s the only reason why you guys haven’t heard of me – I haven’t exposed myself.”
He's about to get all the exposure he can handle. Cannuli at least has last year's Main Event experience to draw on. He was second in chips after Day 2 but just barely held on to min in 691st place.
Chip Count: 12,250,000
Position: 6th
Nationality: US
Age: 23
Hometown: Cape May, New Jersey
Career Live Tournament Earnings: $52,325
WSOP Cashes: 3
Online Nickname: N/A
Twitter Handle: N/A
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