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.