John from Birmingham, has always gambled for a living. In the eighties he was the most famous greyhound punter in the UK. His fine eye and thorough examination of video evidence meant that when John moved at a dogtrack, the prices changed. He was the probably the biggest on track punter at that time.
At the start of the 1986 football season, he fancied Norwich to win the old 2nd division. A few draws later and Norwich's price had gone out considerably. As usual, John was confident with his judgement, so backed them again, this time bigger. As he expected, Norwich fought back to overhaul the early season leaders to eventually win the title. He collected £55,000 and promptly used it to buy a house. He still lives at the same Solihull home with his 17-year-old son Jay Jay.
He started playing poker in 1991, but made a loss the first year. He hasn't had a losing year since. He is probably most famous for reaching the 2002 WSOP Main Event as chip leader. A few unfortunate coups and a bad read on Verkonyi led to him crashing out 7 th . It was a long time before John forgave himself for that error. The $170,000 he collected was no consolation. In November 20004 though, John went a long way toward laying that ghost to rest. He won the televised EPT Final at the London Victoria Grosvenor Casino, collecting a cool £200,000.