Novice poker millionaire returning to World Series

One of the most charismatic and engaging players at last year’s World Series of Poker will be back for another run.

John Hesp, an instant fan favorite for his lively banter and Technicolor jacket, said in a phone interview this month that he’ll return to play in the Main Event. The 2018 WSOP kicks off Wednesday, May 30 — there will be 78 bracelet events, the most prestigious being the Main Event, which starts July 2.

An amateur poker player from England’s east coast who turns 65 years old next month, Hesp’s jaunty run last July took him all the way to the final table, far exceeding his “wildest expectations,” he said.

“My intent when I went there last year was to fulfill a bucket-list wish,” he said. “My aim was to get into the top thousand” and finish in the money.

Before entering the WSOP Main Event, Hesp’s poker winnings equaled about $2,000. His typical buy-in was 10 pounds ($14) at Napoleon’s Casino in Hull, a city about 200 miles north of London.

For the 2017 tournament in Las Vegas, 7,221 players participated in the Main Event, and Hesp outlasted all but three of them. He finished fourth and earned $2.6 million.

Norman Chad, commentator for ESPN’s poker telecasts, said Hesp “embodied the essence of the Main Event — an everyman with a once-in-a-lifetime magic carpet ride to millions.”

And he did it in a “colorful, personable, relatable way,” Chad said via email last week. “In a room full of hoodies and headphones, he was a shock of delightful humanity.”

Because Britain doesn’t tax gambling winnings, Hesp didn’t have to share his prize with the government. And he had no backers, so he kept the full $2.6 million.

Hesp said he has never read an instructional poker book or tried to understand how the pros play. “I think it was my total ignorance of the whole mechanics of the game that enabled me to play a game that to some extent confused a lot of the top players.”

Hesp’s goal this year is the same: to finish in the top thousand and cash.

“There will be more pressure on me mainly because there’s a degree of expectation when one has done so well in the past,” he said. “Getting into the top thousand is not a small task.”

But he won’t mind at all if he doesn’t succeed.

Last year’s run was “surreal, a dream. I was just having a ball. If I can replicate the pleasure and entertainment that I gained from playing in the Main Event last year, then every penny,” he said, will be well spent — even if he doesn’t cash.