I love a story where someone ‘goes for it’ and comes up trumps. There’s no better way than that to describe the recent good fortune of John Hesp of Bridlington. The 64 year old grandfather of seven had recently decided to enjoy life a bit more and one of his major ‘bucket list’ items was to extend his typical twice monthly trip to Napoleon’s Casino in Hull to something a little more memorable. He had decided to splash out £7,000 to enter the main event at the World Series of Poker.
Against over 7200 other poker players, what started off as something of an experience, moved into the the realms of ‘dreams come true’ when the Yorkshire Grandad and caravan home salesman somehow made it to the final table of the main event. With a minimum prize of $1,000,000 for 9th (of 9), he’d already struck it rich. As it turns out, Hesp managed to achieve 4th place winning him a staggering $2,600,000. It’s the second highest ever prize for a British player.
Of the experience Hesp said: “It’s been quite awesome, I’ve been living the dream, I’ve loved every minute of it and I’ve had so much fun and entertainment.
“I’ve wanted to do this tournament for a couple of years now, it was one of the things on my bucket list.”
As the flashy dresser progressed through to tournament his success and story drew in media, fans and professional poker player alike. Poker pro Danielle Anderson priased Hesp for “bring(ing) back fun to poker’s biggest stage”. Until this tournmant down to earth Hesp had never even paid more than £10 to enter a poker tournament. For this adventerous Grandad, his gamble of a pricey once in a lifetime poker trip to Vegas certainly paid off. Congratulations John! Same time next year?