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.