John Racener’s career as a poker pro includes ups, downs, and the sort of money management that turned former heavyweight champ Joe Louis into a charity case. Despite this (or because of this) he will be playing Texas holdem with some of the best poker players on the planet during the World Series of Poker’s Main Event final table. This conclusion to what is accepted as the Texas Holdem world championship and the highlight of the WSOP season will happen on November 6th, 2010.
For Racener, his life as a poker pro started long before Texas holdem or beating the stuffing out of other poker players was even a consideration. His love of poker grew out of his love of sports in general. When he was a kid, he didn’t go out of his way to see the poker pros and stars that were playing at the WSOP, he idolized baseball players. This love of sports was driven by a competitive nature though, and he found that holdem was both accessible, competitive, and something he excelled at. During school he and his friends would finish their work in class as quickly as humanly possible, and then start playing poker.
Taking lunch money from his friends at school during hands of holdem eventually got old, and he started to want more. John wanted to test his skills against the best poker players and poker pros that the online world had to offer. At the age of 16 (after a considerable amount of pleading and begging) Racener’s mother gave him a credit card to play online poker with. He quickly showed the sort of skills that foreshadowed his future World Series of Poker success, and turned $50 into a whopping $30,000. Before he was old enough to enter a casino he was playing WSOP level competition in the back rooms of various gaming bars and gaming facilities. At 18 he came in first at the tournament that would later become the PokerStars Sunday Million. This win swelled his bankroll by $130,000, and became the key to a lifestyle that he could only previously dream of.
To put it politely, John Racener, the poker pro, was good for the economy. He recklessly spent his winnings on a the sort of party lifestyle that would even tire out even hardcore professionals like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton. He did so with the confidence that there would always be more money out there for him. The problem is, there isn’t. Karma is a boomerang, and nothing can kick you in the naughty bits harder than reality. He run of luck as a poker pro was coming to an end, and for six months, other poker players took their turn raping his bankroll.
John Racener would probably be a tragic figure instead of a World Series of Poker success story were it not for club owner Jeff Gigante. Jeff co-owned five South Tampa bars, and was well aware of Raceners aspirations as a poker pro. He had watched him competing against other poker players, and was impressed with the kid’s talent. When John first appeared on his radar, he saw that the prodigy had the sort of talent that most WSOP bracelet winners would envy, but saw that Racener also lacked discipline. While John was riding high and fueled by winnings, he would not be receptive to accepting a mentor. As his fortunes dimmed though, and a prolonged dry spell took its toll, Gigante saw a window of opportunity, and offered to help Racener. John accepted and Gigante became his manager.
Jeff Gigante engineered a comeback that would eventually lead to a World Series of Poker run that would put Racener on the sports biggest stage. Along the way he secured endorsements from FullTilt and Fein Energy drink. By adding a life coach and a financial planner to the mix, Racener learned to manage his money as well as his partying.
The skill of John Racener and the management acumen of Jeff Gigante has paid off for them both. John is now in the WSOP Main event and, win or lose, Jeff has a client with the sort of World Series of Poker pedigree that he can parlay into numerous other opportunities. We look forward to seeing how this story concludes in early November.
