It took less than four years for Jesse Lonis to climb from $200 tournaments to competing in high rollers with the best players in the world. The New York native kickstarted his career with a World Poker Tour final table in 2021 at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open and then followed it up with a deep run in the WSOP main event, taking 25th place overall. In 2022, the former construction worker won a bracelet in the WSOP Online series, and nearly added a second that summer while also making two final tables at the WPT World Championship series.

But the 28-year-old has put together his best year in 2023. In January he finished third in the $25,000 high roller at the Hard Rock in South Florida for $260,000 and then added another $370,000 with a win at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. This summer, he made a last-minute decision to play in the $50,000 pot-limit Omaha championship and broke through for his second bracelet and a massive payday of $2.3 million. He now has $6 million in career earnings.

Highlights from this interview include new births, being the Longfellow Deeds of his hometown, watching grandma play Full Tilt, working construction "like a dog in a cage," following in Gilly's footsteps, a long and brutal stay at Circus Circus, being an old school player, ging broke and coming back, where he keeps the bracelets, jumping into a $50k event, big sports bets, J-Lo, CCR, and bird presentations.