It’s been a steady, but meteoric climb to the top for Jesse Lonis, who has risen from a mid-stakes tournament grinder to high roller crusher in less than five years.
Lonis first popped up on the radar in the 2021 Card Player Player of the Year race, ending the year in 43rd place. He improved to 32nd in 2022, and then followed it up with 18th in 2023. The Little Falls, New York native became a true POY contender in 2024, ending the year in third while banking $6.7 million.
It would be nearly impossible for the vast majority of players to improve on that campaign, but Lonis did it once again in 2025. In fact, he basically doubled his success at the tables. The two-time WSOP bracelet winner did a lot of his damage in Triton Poker events in 2025, earning his second and third career Triton titles during the same festival in Montenegro. He also won big at the new Onyx High Roller series, picked up his second WSOP Circuit ring, two PokerGO Tour trophies, and a European Poker Tour trophy.
With 10 wins (eight qualifying for POY points) overall, $13.4 million in earnings, and 29 final tables, Lonis made one final leap to the top of the rankings to claim Player of the Year honors, sponsored by CoinPoker.
“I’ve always been a fan of Card Player, so to win this leaderboard is a great honor,” said Lonis. “It’s cool to collect another accolade like this.”
Lonis stands alone as the top dog of 2025, or perhaps more fittingly, the alpha gorilla, the symbol he’s chosen as something of a totem on his path to poker success.
A Long Road In A Short Time
Despite being only 30 years old, Lonis’ incredible run over the last few years already has him within the top 50 on poker’s all-time money list. Over the last few years, he has seamlessly acclimated to the high roller tournament environment. Between his $50,000 pot-limit Omaha WSOP bracelet and three Triton titles, among many other significant results, money talks.
“I think in most ways, I’ve gotten better, for sure,” Lonis said of his sustained success as he moved up in stakes. “In some ways, the better you get in some areas, you may lose focus on some other things in other areas. But I think overall, I’m getting better every year.”
“I’ve always been confident,” said Lonis. “The first time I played [a high roller], I prepared a lot. When I got there, I was definitely nervous. You’re just trying not to screw things up. But I knew I was supposed to be there, and I knew I’d get comfortable. I’ve played the biggest buy-ins, but you know, there’s still a couple of levels I haven’t reached yet. It just feels good to be comfortable at the $50,000 and $100,000 level, for sure.”
The POY Path
It was a fairly slow start for Lonis in 2025. Despite his online WSOP Circuit win, he had just one qualifying POY result in January, and one more in February, both inside the PokerGO Studio.
Lonis was spending his days as a homebody, playing less than his typical volume for good reason. He welcomed his third daughter in February, and drew additional inspiration from his growing family.
“I don’t think I’d even be playing this game still if I didn’t have success when I was away, because that’s what’s kept my wife happy, knowing that I’m not just out there gambling,” Lonis said back in July, when he appeared on the cover of Card Player for the first time. “I’m out there earning and providing for our future. Luckily, I’m in a spot now where they can travel the world with me.”
March is when Lonis’ POY campaign kicked off in earnest. He earned his first live victory of the year in a $10,000 event during the Wynn Millions, and made his first deep run of the PGT PLO Series, finishing in third. That PGT festival spilled over into April, and Lonis only got hotter from there.
In total, Lonis made four final tables and cashed five times during the PGT PLO Series, with a win, a runner-up, and two third-place finishes. That earned him Player of the Series honors, and Lonis was only just getting started.
Dad Makes It Worthwhile
He would soon hit the road, or rather the air, for a lengthy stretch in Europe that stands as the best run of his career to date. At the EPT Monte Carlo festival, Lonis made three final tables and recorded his third victory of the year in a €30,000 high roller.
“I started in Monte Carlo, and then right from the beginning there, I had good results. In my first tournament I made the final table, then I won one, and then in my last tournament, I got second. While I was there, I also played an online tournament, a $10,000 event on GGPoker, and I won that too, so I had a lot of momentum heading into Triton Montenegro.”
While his strong performance in Monte Carlo was in line with some of the better results of his career to that point, Triton Montenegro was a revelation. Lonis first won a $40,000 no-limit hold’em mystery bounty event for $619,000 from the prize pool, along with another $800,000 in bounties. That victory put Lonis in the lead for Card Player POY race, and his next result put him in a position to hold onto that spot for the rest of 2025.
In the $100,000 no-limit hold’em main event, 180 entries built a prize pool of $18 million. After three days, Lonis was once again the last player standing. His third Triton title earned him a career-high $3,446,298 and 1,680 POY points. At a final table that featured two-time POY winner Stephen Chidwick, Fedor Holz, Artur Martirosian, and Christoph Vogelsang, Lonis came away with a decisive victory.
“It’s emotional, I’m trying to hold the tears back,” Lonis told reporters after closing out the momentous victory. “I wanted to come out here and perform. I’m away from my family for a long time and I told them I was going to make it worthwhile.”
In one individual festival of results, Lonis outearned every single previous year of his career.
“It was my first time in Montenegro, and it was a magical place,” said Lonis. “I had good people around me, good food, great atmosphere. After I won the first tournament, it felt like I just had all the momentum in the world going into the main. It definitely stands as one of the early pinnacles in my career.”
High Roller Wins Continue
Lonis’ considerable POY lead carried him through a relatively quiet 2025 WSOP. Away from Horseshoe, however, he continued to pile up results. He won a $25,000 high roller at the Wynn Summer Classic, and a $15,000 no-limit hold’em event at the Aria High Roller Series to highlight his summer.
In mid-August, Lonis logged his third seven-figure result of 2025. Although his Onyx victory in Cyprus didn’t help his POY totals given the invitation-only nature of the event, he was certainly not mad at the $1.75 million payday. Two more final tables followed at EPT Barcelona in late August, and in September, there was a lucrative trip to Jeju, South Korea for another Triton festival.
Lonis banked his fourth seven-figure result of the year in a $100,000 Triton PLO event, adding 800 POY points and $1,261,000 to his totals. There was one more significant burst in late September and early October with four final tables inside the PokerGO Studio, including Lonis’ eighth and final qualifying victory of 2025 in a $5,300 PLO event.
He had just one qualifying cash each in November and December. His trip to WSOP Paradise, during which Lonis cashed five times and made a final table, garnered significant attention for a hand he didn’t win. During live streaming coverage of the $25,000 buy-in Super Main Event, he folded a set of kings. As it turns out, his opponent Ryuta Nakai had turned third pair with a straight blocker into a bluff.
Had he made the call, Lonis would have been poised for yet another massive score. Instead, he bowed out in 55th place for $180,000. Lonis has received consistent positive attention during his run to the top of the poker world, but the first significant blowback of his career didn’t seem to shake him.
“From the beginning, there was never any negative feelings for me at all,” said Lonis. “I’ve played that spot probably 30 or 40 times throughout the year. You play a lot of hands. And I’m sure in that spot, I was right 80, 90 percent of the time. The guy that did it against me was one of the nicest dudes. I wasn’t mad at all. I was more just proud of the guy for going for it.”
Although he is among the youngest players on the high roller tour, Lonis is more of a throwback to the days when you could just size up your opponent and make a gut decision. Although he’s not averse to a theory-based approach, Lonis has always been more of an old-school type of player, preferring a more exploitative style. He’s not afraid to go for a big bluff or a big laydown, even if it makes him look foolish every once in a while.
“Obviously, I’ve gotten to the point where anything that I do at a poker table, I’m going to have positive and negative reactions. The fact that people care about how I’m playing, the reason I’m here, is because obviously I’m doing something right.”
Holding On For The Title
The race came down to the wire. Punnat Punsri, the number one player on Thailand’s all-time money list, pushed until the very last series of the year in Las Vegas, but ultimately fell one result short. While Lonis is appreciative of the award, and the achievement, his priorities after another busy year on the road were with his family as Punsri made his run.
“[Punsri] played a few tournaments that were probably way better value for player of the year things. He was definitely a little more aware of it than I was. I was enjoying myself with my family in the Bahamas, so I wasn’t going to leave early for something like that. It was kind of in the back of my mind. I didn’t chase after it too much. If it comes, it comes.”
Lonis indeed held on to the top spot when the final events of 2025 had wrapped up. With another career year in the books, Lonis’ approach to the game continues to prove successful at almost every turn. While his embodiment and embrace of the gorilla as his spirit animal might seem, on the surface, to be a means of posturing, Lonis has a deeper depth of appreciation for how it represents his path in poker.
“I think at this point the gorilla thing is more of a mindset than anything else,” said Lonis. “It’s just being totally engaged. Being the best version of you. And for me, it’s my aggressive style. I think it fits with the way I approach the game. It reminds me to always be hungry, to wake up and go for it, every day.”
- Photos courtesy of PokerGO, PokerStars, and Triton Poker