Player Spotlight: Nick Petrangelo
Two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo is making deep runs and cashing tournaments at the 2019 U.S. Poker Open. That shouldn’t be a surprise considering he’s the reigning WSOP High Roller Champion.
Petrangelo took down his second bracelet last summer, outlasting a field of 105 for his largest career cash – a $2.9 million score in the $100,000 buy-in event. Over the last few years, he’s become a fixture of high roller tournaments and is currently the 15th ranked player in the Global Poker Index.
His poker career blossomed as his athletic career came to an end. Petrangelo golfed and played hockey at Skidmore College in New York. As fate would have it, concussions allowed him “more free time to play online poker,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2017.
That ultimately worked out well for him. His success online under the name “caecilius” culminated with a $624,676 prize when he chopped three ways in the 2017 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).
His real breakout, however, came in 2015. He burst onto the high roller scene with eight six-digit cashes and finished off an impressive year with his first million dollar cash – a 2nd place finish for $1,015,335 at the WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic $100,000 High Roller.
Over the course of his career he’s made $17 million in live earnings and is 33rd on the all-time money list. At this year’s USPO, Petrangelo cashed in 4th place in Event #5 ($25,000 NLH) for 147,000; and in 6th place in Event #7 ($25,000 NLH) for $90,000.
Petrangelo has lived the life poker dreams are made of. He went from building his bankroll with mid-stakes tournaments to playing high roller tournaments across the globe. There’s no doubt a shiny new USPO Main Event title would be a welcome addition to one of poker’s most impressive resumes.
