Player Spotlight: John Monnette
Three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner John Monnette is his debut at the 2019 U.S. Poker Open in Event #8, the $25,000 buy-in for the mixed-game championship. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that his chip count is among the tournament’s largest.
Monnette has been playing for the better part of the last two decades but brokeout on the big stage with bracelets in back-to-back World Series of Poker. His first was in the 2011 $2,500 Eight Game Mix for a $278,144 payday. He won the $5,000 Seven Card Stud bracelet in 2012 for $190,826. Most recently, in 2017, he won the$10,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship for $256,610 – the crowning achievement on a 14-cash performance at that year’s WSOP.
Among his peers, Monnette is regarded as one of the best mixed-game players in the world.
“I think it’s safe to say that he’s kind of the way we would have been if we had the books and Internet around to teach us how to manage,” Doyle Brunson said of Monnette in a 2012 interview with ESPN.
Before winning three bracelets, Monnette also was a prominent online player under the name “jmonnett,” winning a Fixed-Limit Badugi title during the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker and a 2-7 Triple Draw title at the 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker. The long-time high stakes pro has amassed over $2.8 million in live winnings.
There isn’t much Monnette hasn’t achieved at the poker table over the last 15 years, so it’s easy to understand if he is picky about the tournaments he decides to play. Playing his first tournament of this year’s installment, Monnette is looking to add the U.S. Poker Open Mixed Game title to his long resume.
