Noli Francisco, a Filipino-American poker player, was born in Cebu, Philippines. A resident of West New York, New Jersey, he has also worked as an importer, architect, and real estate entrepreneur.
Nicknamed “Smiling Assassin,” Noli Francisco has been a successful recreational poker player for over 25 years. His success story began in Event 8 No-Limit Hold’em at the 13th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) on May 16, 1982 with a respectable seventh-place finish, for which he bagged $4,920. A few years later, in May 1987, Noli Francisco took home $3,000 by finishing twelfth in Event 12 No-Limit Hold’em at the 18th Annual WSOP.
On April 26, 1992, Noli Francisco had an impressive fifth-place finish in Event 5 Limit Seven Card Stud at the 23rd Annual WSOP and walked away with $13,250. In the following month, he bettered this result by outplaying several players in Event 11 Pot-Limit Hold’em at the 23rd Annual WSOP to finish second and bag $67,000. Couple of days later, Noli Francisco managed another final-table finish in Event 14 Limit Seven Card Stud at the same tournament and earned $36,600 by securing third place. In April 1993, he performed well to finish as the runner-up in Event 7 No-Limit Hold’em at the 24th Annual WSOP and collect $86,500 in prize money.
Noli Francisco secured thirteenth place in Event 14 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo at the 25th Annual WSOP and won $3,375, in April 1994. At the 27th Annual WSOP, he reached the final table in Event 7 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, played really well to finish second, and took home a whopping $78,945 in prize money. On May 6, 1996, Noli Francisco again reached the final table in Event 16 Limit Hold’em at the 27th Annual WSOP to secure a respectable third-place finish and earn $50,100.
In 1997, Noli Francisco had two good finishes in consecutive months at the 28th Annual WSOP that added $23,987 to his bankroll. Early next year, on February 21, he came second in the Limit Hold’em event at the 1998 LA Poker Classic and made $24,495. In January 2001, though he won just $915 he ranked eighteenth among 177 players in Event 6 No-Limit Hold’em at the 1st Annual World Poker Challenge.
Two years later, in September 2003, Noli Francisco achieved a milestone in his poker career in the No-Limit Hold’em event at the Borgata Poker Open World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 2. He played brilliantly, outlasting a field of 235 players to finish first and cashed a huge amount of $470,000 in prize money. In April next year, Noli Francisco made it to the final table to finish second in the Pot-Limit Omaha event at the Five-Star World Poker Classic Championship Season 2 and walked home with $80,316. April 2005 saw Noli Francisco making an impressive second-place finish and earned him $15,300 in the Limit Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo at the New England Poker Classic tournament.
With seventeen cashes and one first-place finish to his credit, Noli Francisco has total tournaments winnings that add up to $967,103.
