2015 WSOP - Despite the short stack, Butteroni enjoying the moment

November 2, 2015

2015 has been an incredible year for Italy in the world of poker.

This past March, Team Italy surprised the poker world by capturing the inaugural Global Poker Masters in Malta by beating Team Russia and the favored Team USA. The team consisted of Mustapha Kanit, Rocco Palumbo, Dario Sammartino, Andrea Dato and Giuliano Bendinelli, and demonstrated that Italian poker players are a force to be reckoned with in today’s game. This past summer, well-known Italian poker pro Max Pescatori had a truly memorable World Series of Poker, capturing his third and fourth bracelets. Then in September, the WSOP Circuit held its first ever tournament series in Italy and offered impressive field sizes and prize pools. Italian Sergio Castelluccio won the WSOP Circuit main event.

But during the 2015 WSOP main event, another Italian made his own personal mark in the poker world. Federico Butteroni outlasted 6,411 other competitors to become a member of the 2015 November Nine. Although he's the short stack with only 6.2 million in chips, he's thankful to be on poker’s center stage.

“It was my dream to play at the final table of the WSOP main event," said Butteroni. "I always wanted to be in the November Nine. It’s been like a dream. I can’t believe it after working on my game for the last several years.”

Six years ago, Butteroni began playing poker after watching it on TV and became fascinated by the game. He would watch every possible program, studying diligently.

“I started learning the game watching videos on EPT and WSOP final tables. I really started to love the game so I decided to buy a couple of books, including Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book. It was amazing. It really opened my mind and I learned a lot.”

When Butteroni began to play poker online, he would compete on the big sites such as PokerStars and FullTilt. In 2009, Italy decided to regulate online poker, reducing the player pool from the entire world to just Italian players. Initially the novice Italian players made the competition relatively easy to make money.

“The market was not that big after [regulation], but the players who remained were weak since they didn’t know much about the game," he said. "Now, this was very easy to play the game because many amateurs just wanted to try playing poker and the field was very soft.”

In 2010, Butteroni decided to play poker full-time in Italy's casinos including Casino de Campione, and also continue his online play. He would play primarily live cash games, usually 2/5 euro no-limit hold ’em. After grinding non-stop for three years, Butteroni became burnt out and decided to take a break from the game.

“I was tired of playing poker," he said. "I think poker is beautiful game, but if you can’t find the right balance, sometimes you can be lost. Overall, the break really helped me grow as a person.”

As part of his transition away from the game, he decided to make a major life change and move to Australia with some friends with intentions of trying to find regular work. He ended up finding a job, working in a pizzeria even though initially he couldn’t speak English.

“I had never worked before I started professional poker playing, so I never sweat for real money," said Butteroni. "Of course, poker is a real job, but sometimes you lose contact with reality and value of money. This working experience really helped my mindset.”

After several months of hard work and learning English, he returned to the felt at the Crown Casino in Perth, Australia. During the summer of 2014, Butteroni found success at the cash tables and in tournaments where he had several final tables, including two runner-up finishes. With his visa expiring, he returned home to Italy and needed to make a big choice. Would he play poker professionally or find a full-time job?

You already know the answer. Butteroni chose poker and wanted to chase his dream of playing in the WSOP.

“I have played all levels in the EPT, the Italian Poker Tour, but I never played at the WSOP," he said. "I gave myself one last chance to live my dream and play at the WSOP. [Knowing that if after 2015] it doesn’t work, then poker would be just a hobby for me.”

The 25-year-old arrived in Las Vegas and started out with a bang. In his first WSOP bracelet event, Butteroni entered the $1,500 Monster Stack and coasted to a 20th place finish. A couple of weeks later, he captured a Rio Deepstack event with 857 entries. After cashing one more time just before the main event, 114th place in $1,500 no-limit event, Butteroni felt great about his poker game and was carrying this momentum into the WSOP main event.

“I had a lot of confidence and I was very happy about my game," he said. "Of course, I was playing these events with the right mindset, which helped a lot. Also, playing for 12 hours is always a good exercise to prepare for the main event.”

Entering the 2015 WSOP main event, Butteroni set a reasonable goal to just make the money. The goal changed after the bubble burst.

“I never felt relaxed in the event because once I achieved one goal, I always tried to achieve the next one. I saw a lot of people who arrive in the money just start to throw their chips in. I think this was a big mistake. I waited until the right moment to get my chips in.”

This strategy served him well as he bagged chips at the end of Day 3, albeit with only about 20 big blinds. When action resumed on Day 4, he had a meteoric run which kept him among the top five in chips for much of the day. With this huge stack, Butteroni adjusted his strategies and turned to a cash game approach.

“With this big stack, I started to play my game because I am used to playing in cash games with 100 to 200 bigs," he said. "I just tried to do my best and make the best decisions I could versus my opponents.”

The approached worked and brought him to the final day of play in July. With only 27 players remaining and the final table in sight, Butteroni sat in 18th. Although below the average stack, the exuberant Italian just wanted to savor the moment of a lifetime.

“I arrived on Day 7 and told myself to enjoyed the day. How can I be stressed when this is the best part of the tournament?”

Despite the gameplan of not being stressed, surviving the WSOP main event bubble as the short stack was truly one of the most stressful moments of his life.

“That was the worst moment of the day with such a big bubble of almost $300,000 and also the November Nine," he said. "I would have to go to the doctor if I missed this bubble.”

No doctor needed.

Butteroni edged in, collected a seven-figure payday and left Vegas with intentions of preparing for the big night. As he returns back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to the Penn and Teller theater, Butteroni aims to first surpass his countryman, Filippo Candio’s performance, when he finished fourth in 2010 WSOP main event, then win. Most importantly, Butteroni just wants to represent his country as well as possible.

“Representing Italy is very important to me. I am very proud to be Italian, and I want to do my best for Italy," said Butteroni. "I also want to me a nice person because so many people will be watching and want to give a good impression of Italian players and myself. Going into the final table, I’m not very deep but I know anything can happen.”

With his exuberance and joy at the final table, no matter what the result, Butteroni will have memories for a lifetime. He just hopes that his final memory is one where he's holding the bracelet.