If there is a player who has taken the world of poker by storm, it is John Racener. It was on his 21st birthday, when he was playing his very first live poker tournament, that he walked off with $190,000 which he won at the Harrah’s Circuit Event in WSOP 2006. He left the world gasping for breath at his confidence and skill in being able to pull off such a big win at his very first tournament.
As if that was not enough, he also won the Circuit Event along with the first one a year later. In this manner, he has already earned about 1.2 million dollars from live poker tournaments, and about $500,000 playing online.
He may be only 25 years old, But John Racener happens to be the second most experienced player to be participating in the World Series of Poker 2010. The most veteran player at the tournament’s main event is Michael Mizrachi.
His run at the WSOP 2010
He began his run at the 2010 WSOP in third place. Racener uses a particular name when he is playing – it reads like this: ‘$JMONEY$’. Whenever someone sees this mark, they are instantly able to recognize it as Racener’s. This autograph of his has to its credit a third place showing in April 2009 at Full Tilt $750,000 Guaranteed for $54,000 besides a win at the PokerStars $500,000 Guaranteed. Very few players can boast that!
Racener holds a 492 ranking worldwide at the time of his 2010 Main Event run. And according to PocketFives.com Rankings, his fortunes have been tracked to over one million dollars in online tournaments alone. If you visit PokerStars, you can find him under the screen name of $30K, as Pocket Five on Full Tilt, and as JMONEY on UB.com.
His background…
John Racener seemed to hit the poker scene in the United States when poker was going through a boom, sometime in 2006. A resident of Port Richey in Florida, this young lad ended up finishing in third place in the WSOP Circuit Championship that was being held in Atlantic City. He won himself a neat $103,000. Barely a month later, Racener won $166,000 at the final table of the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Winter Open. He just wouldn’t stop there. He won a staggering $379,000 in December 2007 at the WSOP Circuit Championship held in Atlantic City.
In the 2009 WOSP, Racener had four money finishes and one at the final table. He has come to Las Vegas in the 2010 tournament and has already got himself three top 60 cashes which amount to more than $40,000. By day 5, he had a top 15 stack in the $10,000 buy-in main event and had earned himself the third position at the secondary feature table. Day 6 saw him claim the chip lead by dinner time with 4.5 million chips. And finally, on Day 7 he shared a table with other poker greats like Tony “Bond18” Dunst, former “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande, and Jeff “Mrrain” Banghart. If there is someone who has a strong chance of winning this year, it’s Racener!