Jonathan “Texas John” Tamayo, who has cashed in 8 WSOP events in three years, is one of the biggest rising stars in poker, and has been playing poker since 2005. As a college graduate studying hospitality management at Cornell University, Jonathan found himself spending lots of time playing Limit Hold’em and MTT’s online.
During his college years, he started playing live NLHE at the Turning Stone Casino which, to enter, only required its visitors to be 18 years of age. Players like Brian Hastings were regulars at the Casino. So one could say he is one of the few pro’s who started out playing live poker legally. Jonathan would go on to graduate from Cornell University, something which again is not very common among poker pro’s.
The fateful day for him came on the 30th of March, 2008. On that day he was contemplating which jobs he could apply for, but also happened to be playing a Sunday Million, and happened to reach the final table, placing 6th for just over $60,000. From there on it was clear to him that he wanted to make a living out of poker. Maybe if he had not reached that final table he would now be working at the hotels that he is a guest of while playing in live poker tournaments.
Jonathan Tamayo final tabled the very first WSOP tournament he entered, the $1500 Mixed Hold’em Event. He finished second place for an astonishing $140,093. But Texas John was not done winning yet. Later in 2009, he went on to make his biggest ever cash to date, raking in $352,832 from a 21st place finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event. This was also the year that he reached the elusive Supernova Elite Status on Pokerstars.
He has just shy of $700,000 in winnings from WSOP cashes alone, having cashed on 16 separate occasions and reaching two final tables. In total, he has over $1,000,000 in lifetime earnings from poker. Jonathan currently lives in a town called Humble, which is located in Texas, and lies just north of Houston.
