Let's take a look at one of the runner ups of the 2017 WSOP Main Event final table, and you'd be surprised to learn that he's just an ordinary 64-year-old grandpa from Bridlington, England.
His story is something that dreams are typically made of. What starts as an ordinary wish to just be able to play the main event of the WSOP has ended up something truly wonderful for the 64-year-old grandfather to seven grandkids.
John Hesp is a semi-retired caravan home salesman, who traveled to Las Vegas this summer in order to simply check off one of the things in his bucket list.
Well, for one thing, the World Series of Poker is a world-class championship poker tournament, and anyone can play, provided they shell out the $10,000 entrance fee.
A total of 7,221 players signed up for the Main Event and tried to endure the first seven days of intense poker action at the Rio Casino to reach the final table, where the coveted first prize includes a sweet $8 million cash!
Hesp managed to become one of them, but what makes his involvement in the final table even more remarkable is that he has never actually played a tournament with a buy-in bigger than £10!
The recreational senior poker player, who is usually found shuffling chips on Sundays at his local casino in Hull, actually barely plays and it's only just once a month.
He said, "I am to poker what Donald Trump is to politics - an amateur."
Amateur or not, he has bested some of the greatest names in poker history while in the WSOP tournament. In making it to the final table, Hesp has secured a minimum payout of $1 million. To him his previous best was certainly enough for his caliber, or so he thought at that time, a £785 win.
Hesp came into the final table with the second-biggest chip stack. He said, "I've never played a big competition like this but it's one of the things I've had on my bucket list for a while now. I said to my wife about three months ago, ‘Would you mind if I went and played? ' and came with a pal of mine from Bridlington."
Not only his amazing story is garnering the interest of the poker community, but also his colorful jackets are causing quite a stir. A panama hat on his head, the quirky Hesp is seen grinning his way through the competition wearing a unique patchwork of blazers with matching shirts.
The 2017 WSOP Main Event final table ended with Hesp settling at 4th place, with a wonderful $2,600,000 payout! Not bad for his first time ever at a WSOP tournament, right?
Source: https://www.pokernews.com/news/2017/07/john-hesp-poker-wsop-challenge-28526.htm
http://www.wsop.com/2017/final-table/
