Poker Winners 2018
It took over 10 hours of back-and-forth struggle, but John Cynn overcame Tony Miles in a heads-up match for the ages to win the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event for $8.8 million, topping a field of 7,874. It was also another good month for Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger, who was February’s biggest online poker winner with $262,854. He nearly matched that in March winning $241,490 in 10,001 hands over. John Cynn is $8.8 million richer thanks to a huge win at the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, but he says he’s taking his time before spending a good chunk of his money — he’ll speak.
John Cynn is $8.8 million richer thanks to a huge win at the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, but he says he’s taking his time before spending a good chunk of his money — he’ll speak with tax and investment experts before taking the next steps.
But he does have plans for his post-WSOP celebration, which will take him overseas.
Cynn spoke with For The Win earlier this week and peeled back the curtain a bit on the man behind the large stack of money. Here’s what we learned:
1. He was technically homeless during the World Series of Poker
“My lease in Los Angeles was up June 28,” he said. “My plan was to move into my friend’s guest house in Vegas when the WSOP was done. I just stayed in the casinos during the tournaments. When they asked me where I lived, I wrote down ‘homeless.'”
2. He was inspired by a personal tragedy
A friend of his died in December and changed his perspective on life entirely.
“I always had what I considered a strong positive outlook on life,” he said. “When this happened, I tried to enjoy everything and enjoy the journey. As crazy as it may sound, when there were 12 people left, I was doing well in chips. I would joke with my friends: I could find a bad run of cards and go back down to 12th. They’d say, ‘Shut up, why would you say that?’ Even though I was joking, I knew if that happened, I’d be perfectly fine. I played the cards the best I can and whatever place I get I can live with.”
Cynn listened to music during the tournament that reminded him of his friend and her former boyfriend cheered him on from the rail, telling Cynn she was watching over him and helping him.
3. He’s going to spend a whole lot of time traveling
Cynn was going to do it anyway, but now that he has some cash at his disposal, it’ll make those plans much easier: He’s going to see his nephew in Geneva, flying with friends to Southeast Asia and will head to Australia in January. In addition to that, he’ll have duties as the new “poker ambassador” — that includes a contract with 888 Poker — which might require him to travel.
“I want to be nomadic for a while,” he said.
4. He quit his job as an IT consultant years ago to go pro and his parents weren’t pleased
Poker Winners 2018 Winners
“When I first turned pro I didn’t tell parents for six months because I knew they would be absolutely devastated,” he said. “I remember the meal I told my mom I had quit to play poker. She was absolutely crushed, it made things tough for quite some time.”
Now?
Poker Winners 2018 2019
“My family loves it more than I do. After the win, we went to a restaurant, people were asking for pictures. My parents were trying to take photos for me.”