John Cynn: A Poker Player’s Biography
Written by
Joe - Poker PlayerLast updated:
November 28, 2023
Have you ever heard of someone who won the World Series of Poker while officially homeless? Yes, we are talking about John Cynn, the first American Poker player to win the bejeweled bracelet and the first person to win the title while crashing their friends’ hotel rooms. If you are curious to know how John Cynn made it to the top, stick with us until the end of this article.
Where did it all start for John Cynn?
John Cynn was born one day before Christmas 1984 in Northbrook, Illinois. Like many other professional Poker players, he started dabbling in the game when he was in high school and didn’t let go after that. Cynn studied finance and chain supply management at Indiana University, Bloomington, and then went on to work as an IT consultant in a company called enVista. His Poker career really took off in July 2010 when he participated in the Horseshoe Poker Classic, Elizabeth, and got 11th place. This is often considered Cynn’s first official win, which earned him $1,096.
What are some of John Cynn’s most important wins?
2010 to 2014
After that first win in the small $ 300 + 50 No Limit Hold’em event in 2010, John continued to take part in local and national games in various events. In the following year, he started regularly participating in the World Series of Poker events.
He attended his first WSOP in 2011 in Hammond, where he got the 97th place and took home $4,183. He went back to the competition in the following years without obtaining any remarkable rankings or prizes. That was until October 2014 in the WSOPC San Diego, San Diego, when the streak of bad results was broken, and John won the 7th ranking. He pocketed $14,908 from this win, although it’s necessary to mention that this wasn’t his biggest monetary win up to that time. He has already scored $16,929 in the World Poker Tour 2012.
2015 to 2017
The following year, 2015, brought him $19,470 from the WSOP, Las Vegas, despite the fact that his ranking was 59th. One of the most interesting things about John Cynn is that he never gave up on the World Series of Poker and stuck to the games until he finally managed to make his first six-figure win in 2016.
This was the 47th World Series of Poker, held in Las Vegas. This competition ranked Cynn as the 11th top player, giving him $650,000 in prize money. Qui Nguyen eventually won the tournament with a little over 8 million dollars, a good precursor of what was in store for John Cynn. The 2017 WSOP event in Las Vegas brought Cynn to 17th place and resulted in him winning $15,919. The other result of this outcome for Cynn was that he realized he was not ready to stop trying. He was determined to take part in the competition after competition to get himself to the very top.
2018
And to the very top he got. He won the golden bracelet and the honor of first place in the World Series of Poker in a legendary competition in 2018. The game was one to be remembered for many years because he was one of the rare people who made a deep run to win the game. Moreover, Cynn was the first American Poker player ever to win the golden bracelet of the WSOP.
The story about John Cynn’s homelessness during this game is that he had just finished a lease and was crashing his friend’s hotel room at the time. He was planning to stay with another friend until he could figure things out. Of course, everything changed for him with the 8,800,000-dollar prize that he won.
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What did John Cynn do after 2018?
2019 and 2020 had a few successful games for John, the most significant of which was the Partypoker Millions Sochi Super High Roller Series. He came second in this live Poker event and won $252K in the process. This was the last time John was seen winning anything eye-catching in Poker events.
In fact, not much is known about John Cynn after the 2018 tournament. The world expected him to come back to the competitions and try to duplicate his win. However, he has stayed quiet and out of sight since then, and no one knows what exactly he is up to. He has also been pretty inactive on his social media (Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and refrains from sharing snippets of his daily personal and professional life.
What is John Cynn’s net worth?
With a total of over $10 million in live poker winnings, John Cynn’s net worth is estimated to be somewhere between 1 and 5 million dollars. Of course, it is worth mentioning that Cynn’s level of secrecy about his personal life and financial efforts has made it really difficult to make an educated guess about his wealth.
What do we know about John Cynn’s personal life?
As can be guessed, not much is known about Cynn’s personal life. But here is what he has revealed so far. He planned to travel all over the world after his great win in 2008 and share his victory with his family and friends during his travels. He also has a great relationship with his parents, but it wasn’t always like that. At the beginning of his poker career, his parents weren’t too thrilled that he had quit his job to become a professional gambler. But after seeing his successes, they supported him wholeheartedly and were present during the WSOP tournament in 2018.
Another interesting fact about John Cynn is his personal philosophy. He believes that you should play the best you can with the hand that you have, and in the end, everything will be alright. He adapted this view of life after encountering his friend’s death. The tragedy made him realize not much in life is worth worrying about and that you can conquer any obstacle if you want to.
John Cynn in a box
| Nationality | American |
| Birth date | December 24th, 1984 |
| Birthplace | Northbrook, Illinois |
| Age | 39 |
| Major in college | Finance and supply chain management |
| First job | IT consultant |
| Poker winnings | $10,214,121 |
| GPI rank | 117,649th |
| WSOP bracelets | 1 in 2018 |
| Largest win | $8,800,000 |
| First win | 2010, $1,096 |
| First WSOP win | 2011, $4,183 |
| Net worth | 1-5 Million dollars |
| Current residence | Pasadena, California |
