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• Profiling Poker’s Young Guns… Jonathan Little Part 3

  As has been mentioned, the future comes quickly for Little, and as many think the future of poker is Omaha it’s no surprise he capped of his 2009 with a 3rd place finish in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic/WPT Pot Limit Omaha event. Once again he is moving to the money and winning it, as he did going from limit hold’em to sit ‘n goes, online and from sit ‘n goes to live multi-table tournaments.

  Though Jonathan Little’s career is young, and he is noted for transitioning from online poker to live poker rapidly, he wasn’t quite the overnight success his results might indicate. In his first year, he put up no results and his adaptation he believes came a little too slow. He started the multi-table tournaments like he would a sit ‘n go which was probably too tight, he admits in retrospect.

  He also cites an early result at his very first live tournament, a 22nd place in a huge field (Grand Casino Tunic Poker Tournament – WSOP Circuit event), as perhaps giving him a little over-confidence that his online skills would transition quickly to live poker. Cashing again two days later, only reinforced that belief. Once, he got in tune with the patience that live poker requires and adjusted to the slow pace of play, his live results started to mirror his online results (which include a second place in a Sunday Millions).

  One of the holes, if there are any, in Little’s career is a lack of bracelets. With the bulk of his live success coming in the WPT, Little attributes that to being able to astutely play solid competent players and struggling a bit with the inexperienced, tentative players that come in as dead money to the World Series of Poker. That being said he’s still cashed six times in the World Series.

  After banking his second place in the Sunday Millions he attacked the World Series in ‘06 for his first four WSOP cashes. Again, he had success from the start. He cashed in event two with a huge field but only for a little under 3500. He followed that up with 26th place in event 4, returning to his Limit Hold’Em roots, and banking a little under 10k. Event 17 was another massive field and another min cash for Little winning barely more than his buy-in with $1578. Event 22 brought a 37th place finish good for $8,621. Those were just unsatisfying nibbles to jcardshark though.

  The following year he added two more No limit Hold ‘em cashes both in big fields for little over the minimum. In Event 19 he came in 93rd for $3,844 and in Event 49 128th for $4,731. Juxtaposed against his million dollar scores on the World Poker Tour the World Series had to be confounding for Jonathan, and indeed it’s a testament to his abilities that even though he struggles with lesser players he’s still been able to wade through the huge fields to pick up some cashes.

  His 2009 year perhaps didn’t measure up to the successes he enjoyed in the lightening quick start to his career but again it’s all about perspective. Many players would call winning around 200k a great year, but for a guy that has won 2 million in a year its a lull. There is no reason to believe Jonathan won’t soon be climbing the mountain top again and its only a matter of time before his wrists get weighted down with some World Series bracelets as well. Though his been at live tournament poker for half a decade and many kids are modeling their careers after him, he’s still a young up and comer and one of Poker’s top young guns.

• Profiling Poker’s Young Guns… Jonathan Little Part 2

  Jonathan Little has made a name for himself crushing big buy-in live No Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments but his online poker career began interestingly enough crushing Limit Hold’em cash games. He says he plateaud at the $30-$60 level, which was the highest level on the site he was playing at the time. Out of frustration he tried out sit-and-gos, and discovered a knack for it.

  Just as he did with limit hold’em he decided to advance himself by starting at the low buy-ins and working his way up. He set a number of games to play at each level and then after conquering each level moved up. In no time he found himself playing buy-ins of $100 and $200. His dedication to strict guidelines is a model for aspiring poker players to utilize careful bankroll management as they incrementally improve their games.

  Little, known by online handles FieryJustice and jcardshark, quickly made a name for himself dominating those sit n’ gos. When he transitioned to live tournament play and started final tabling everything that experience was a big help to him. His first cash in the season VII of the WPT just like in season VI was for a victory. He won a little over 1.1 million at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. He also showed some Heads-Up prowess finishing 7th in the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship. Good for another 75k. It became apparent that it didn’t matter where the tournament was being held the young circuit player had the potential to go deep.

  In a Cardplayer interviewafter winning the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Little discussed his skill set:

  JR: You are known for being an excellent sit-and-go player. With the blinds and antes as high as they were, did you basically hit a point where you were on autopilot?

  JL: I made a fold earlier in the heads-up match that I normally wouldn’t have made had it been a sit-and-go. I held pocket fours, and he pushed for about 25 big blinds. I didn’t think he was playing very aggressively heads up, so I decided to fold and wait. Had I been playing an aggressive player, I would have definitely called and taken the shot at busting him right there. So, while I do know those push-fold situations back and front, they don’t always apply to live tournaments.

  This a revealing comment that gets to the heart of Little’s poker acumen. Many online players are on so called autopilot, making decisions in live tournaments as though they were multi-tabling four tournaments online, but Little is able to play the player, the situation, and adapt to the moment. The difference between winning and losing can be minute, and clearly auto-calling with pocket fours might have been a huge mistake.

  Live players’ leak at times is an inability to know the math and play in the moment perhaps too much, whereas Little can do both. His is representative of the new generation of players that got their start as teenagers learning the correct moves in an environment that rewards pushes small edges and winning due to volume, then transitioning to live poker where playing the player can be equally as rewarding.

  Little is certainly a pacesetter for all the new young hot shots that have followed in his footsteps. Many have followed the exact same career arc, winning in sit ‘n gos, transitioning to big multi-table tournaments, and then at 21 attacking the live poker scene. It’s no surprise that Little has now become a poker coach, teaching the very tenets that made him a big winner from an early age. His blog can be read on www.gulfcoastpoker.net, and his lessons can be gleaned at www.floattheturn.com.

• Profiling Poker’s Young Guns… Jonathan Little Part I

  The Gulf Coast of the United States has produced some of the best players in the world, and recently Jonathan Little looked like he was on the verge of owning it.  Little, born in 1984 in Pensacola Florida, has a resume that a player born in 1954 would envy.  His lifetime live tournament winnings are over 4 million with almost 3.5 million coming in World Poker Tour events good for 9th all time.  His is the prototype of an online poker tournament player who has transitioned to live poker succes.

  Little’s success in poker tournaments happened mostly in one place the World Poker Tour and that started in Januaray of 2007.  At the Caribbean Poker Adventure he placed fifth and won $317k.  It was an event that featured many of the best players who play poker tournaments online and were too young to play live poker tournaments.  At the L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino he added another 35k to his bankroll.  Though the cashes came early in his poker career it actually didn’t feel like it.  Prior to it, he confides he had been running a little bad and hadn’t won anything.  Already down nearly 250k before the event the money came at just the right time.

  The next year was even better for the youngester.  In 2008, the WPT named Little the World Poker Tour Season VI Player of the Year.  He started that season off with a win at the Mirage Poker Showdown.  Taking down over one million in winnings hinted at the bright future he’d have in live play.  The fact that he conquered a final table featuring Phil Ivey, Amnon Filippi, Darrell Dicken and Jon Friedberg had to be as much a confidence boost as the million was a money boost.  In fact, the win motivated him to give living in Vegas a shot. 

  As seems to be a life truth for Little, the future came quickly. Shortly after his Mirage Poker Showdown he was going deep again.   He just missed a final table when he came in 7th at Gulf Coast Poker Championship played at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi.  That was a homecoming of sorts as Pensacola is a short drive away.  He still banked 93k but regretted bubbling the TV final table.  He made up for that in no time as he made yet another World Poker Tour television broadcast later that year.

  He finished 2nd at the North American Poker Championship and won 680k. Suddenly, he had gone from a kid with a lot of potential to maybe the most feared player on the tour. In his first five cashes, he had a 5th place, a first place win, a seventh place, and a second place. There are professionals who grind a living for twenty years without those kind of results he had reached in his first two. A min cash at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic all but assured him the WPT Player of the Year Award and added almost 30k to his bankroll.  For the year he won just short of two million dollars. 

  Prior to devastating live poker tournaments, Jonathan Little spent some time in school studying pyschology at the University of West Florida.  Perhaps, his studies translated to getting a feel for his opponents as empathy at the table is an often overlooked skill.  Playing in a game at school, including five dollar tournaments and 25-50 cent cash games, he dove head first into the thought behind poker and cites The Theory of Poker and other books by David Sklansky as one of his early influences. 

  Little started playing online poker and quickly grew his bankroll to 35k.  It didn’t take long to realize he might have found his calling and a career.  Getting active in poker forums was a another big help in advancing his game.  Reading other up and comers thoughts on situations and new ways to look at poker honed his game. 

  Another positive influence comes from good friend and talented professional poker player Shannon Shorr.  Shorr, a Tuscaloosa native, gives Little a run for his money as the best young player from the Gulf states.  Little cites Shorrs calm and even demeanor, in the face of bad beats and in winning big hands, as one of the stronger characteristics he admires in him.

• Profiling Up and Comers… Jason Mercier Part 2.

  The kid had found his groove.  Next up was another win at the European Poker Tour London High Roller event.  He topped a tough, tough final table of experienced well bankrolled pros and won just shy of another million.  So in less than a year, the kid from Florida had milked the Europe Poker Tour to the tune of over 2.6 million.

  Yet, it’s almost like if doesn’t happen at the WPT or WSOP Americans are none the wiser.  So when this years WSOP came around Mercier put his stake in to poker’s firmament and to say you can now call me a bracelet winner.  He bested a large Pot Limit Omahafield to capture his first bracelet.  That was worth another 200k+.   Still Jason hadn’t gotten the memo to become a name pro you not only have to do it at the World Series it also has to be televised.

  So, he trudged on in anonymity but then he got his TV final table.  It hasn’t aired yet, but it will, and Mercier, in yet another loaded final table at the World Series of Europeoutlasted two November Niners, and battled toe-to-toe with eventual winner Barry Shulman and second place finisher Daniel Negreanu.  Still, it was disappointing for Mercier because he saw a huge chip lead vanish, but he pocketed almost half a million for fourth.

  That tournament saw Daniel Negreanu move into first place all time for tournament winnings.  Yet, in less than a year it’s amazing that Mercier’s already won a quarter of Negreanu’s lifetime earnings.  As for money won in Europe he has to be one of the all time leaders if not number one.

  There are a ton of young guns supposedly chomping at the bit who  cut their teeth online and are ready to take over the live poker world.  They always say that, at least for the last five years, Mercier at least is proof they are out there, and they are taking over.

• Profiling Up and Comers… Jason Mercier Part 1

  A soon to be famous Gulf Coast Poker player, who should already be famous, a guy who’s recent results make most known pros results look mediocre, is astoundingly almost an unknown to most of the poker world.  This despite a recent cover on Cardplayer magazine, and several huge live tournament finishes.  Perhaps because he’s so quiet and unassuming at the table Jason Mercier has some how flown under the radar while having one an epic heater.

  Mercier swore in his Cardplayer feature that once you get to know him the hard part is to get him to shut up, even if it is table presence hints at the opposite.   Same may be true of his tournament poker career, once he won his first one it may be impossible to shut him out of another.  His most recent live tournament score, just another in his collection, came when he won the 2,500 pound No Limit Texas Hold’em event at the 2009 EPT London.  He earned just over 115k pounds which is roughly 185k dollars.

  That recent victory in at the EPT London gives the young man from Florida over $3.9 million dollars in total lifetime live tournament cashes.  You’d think Mercier with his French sounding name and so many scores in Europe was a Euro but he’s not.

  In 2008, Mercier announced himself to the world by winning the European Poker Tour San Remo main event.  Nice seed money for the start of a successful live career.  Yeah, it was for a paltry 1.37 million dollars.  Mercier didn’t stop there.  He managed to go deep enough to cash a couple of times in the 2008 World Series of Poker but his signature results were still on European soil.

  So it was no surprise when Mercier went back to Europe to play in another EPT event and to hit it big again.  At the EPT Barcelona, Mercier didn’t quite win the main event, but still managed a sixth place finish.  That was another 300k+ to his bankroll.  People in Europe started paying attention even if the folks in the U.S. hadn’t caught on.
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