Frankie Cucchiara

Frankie Cucchiara arrived to Flight A of the National Cup Championship in high spirits, already enjoying his time in Taiwan. He could not help but praise the island, saying, “I love Taiwan. It’s a little bit of a rainy season right now, but if you can get through that, it’s a gorgeous country, great food. It also has the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met.”

He was also impressed once again by Red Space, the home of this APTC stop. Having played here during the previous APT visit, he knew it was big, but walking in still gave him that same sense of scale. “Big, crazy big. It’s huge,” he said with a laugh. “I was here for the last APT, thankfully, and they’ve one-upped it again. The Championship has a different feel to it, unlike any APT I’ve been to ever before.”

Cucchiara plans to take on a full schedule this series. “Yeah, the plan is to play everything up until the Main Event and then hopefully just sun run through that and celebrate on the way out,” he said. “Most of the highlighted events in purple on the schedule I’ll be playing.”

His tournament also began with a bang. On the very first hand of the day, he found himself in a three-way all-in holding Big Slick. “Ace-king versus ace-king versus seven-five suited,” he recounted. “Lucky my ace-king held, and yeah, we got a good stack starting the first tournament of the day.”

With a strong start and a full schedule ahead, Cucchiara is more than ready to make the most of his time in Taipei. His energy, confidence, and love for Taiwan shine through, and he is clearly excited for what the festival has in store. Good luck, Frankie.