Gorilla Mode: Jesse Lonis Beasts 2025 Card Player Player Of The Year Race

It’s been a slow, steady build towards the top for Jesse Lonis, who has risen from high volume tournament grinder to the very top of the game 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 rose to 32nd in 2022, and finished 18th in 2023. Lonis became a true POY contender in 2024, ending the year in third. But each of those years pale in comparison to his 2025 campaign.

With eight qualifying victories, $11.6 million in earnings across all qualifying tournaments and 27 final table appearances in those events, Lonis made the final leap in 2025. He’s a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, and now a three-time Triton champion.

Lonis’ pair of Triton titles in 2025 are the biggest reason why the 30-year-old standout from Little Falls, New York is the winner of the 2025 Card Player POY race, presented 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].”

Even more impressively, Lonis has two wins, including a $1,745,625 score in an Onyx Club Super High Roller Series invitational event in Cyprus, that didn’t even count towards his year-end POY totals. He also won an online WSOP Circuit ring event in January, which was also not POY-eligible. His incredible run over the last few years already has him within the top 50 on poker’s all-time money list.

The 2025 points 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 at Wynn Las Vegas. Punsri ultimately fell one result short.

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

Jesse Lonis at the 2025 WSOP

It wasn’t so long ago that Lonis was one of the higher-volume live tournament grinders on the circuit. He had his first $1 million year in 2022, and his results have exploded every year since. He eclipsed $4 million in 2023, $7.5 million in 2024, and Lonis accrued over $13.4 million in total results during his 2025 POY campaign.

Over the last few years, Lonis 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 rose through the escalating buy-in levels of tournament poker. “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, for sure, I’m getting better every year.”

“I’ve always been confident,” said Lonis. “So the first time I played that [level of] tournament, I prepared a lot. When I got there, I was definitely nervous, and 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 $50k and $100k level, for sure.”

How Lonis Became Card Player POY For 2025

It was a fairly slow start for Lonis in 2025. He had just one qualifying result in January and one more in February, both inside the PokerGO Studio. Lonis was a homebody, playing less than his typical volume for good reason. He welcomed his third daughter, Evelyn Marie, 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.”

Lonis at EPT Monte Carlo

March is when Lonis’ POY campaign kicked off in earnest. He earned his first live victory of the year in a $10,500 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 starting to heat up. Lonis 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 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo festival, Lonis made three final tables and recorded his third victory of the year, in a €30,000 buy-in high roller.

“I started in Monte Carlo, and then right from the beginning there, I had good results. In my first tournament there, I [final tabled], I won one, and then in my last tournament there, I got second. While I was there, I played an online tournament, a $10K on GGPoker, and I won it, 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 thus far, Triton Montenegro was a revelation. Lonis won a $40,000 no-limit hold’em mystery bounty event for $619,000 and $800,000 in bounties for his second career title on the high roller tour. 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 Lonis a career-high $3,446,298 and 1,680 POY points, the most of any result he recorded throughout 2025. At a final table that featured two-time POY winner Stephen Chidwick, Fedor Holz, Artur Martirosian, and Christoph Vogelsang, Lonis won a decisive and poignant victory.

“It’s emotional, I’m trying to hold the tears back,” Lonis told Triton staff 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 out-earned 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, for sure.”

High Roller Wins Continue To Pile Up

Lonis’ considerable POY lead carried him through a relatively quiet 2025 WSOP. Away from Horseshoe Las Vegas, however, Lonis continued to pile up results. He won a $25,800 high roller at the Wynn Summer Classic and a $15,100 no-limit hold’em event at the Aria High Roller Series to highlight his summer.

Lonis wins kickoff event at PGT PLO Series II

In mid-August, Lonis logged his second seven-figure result of 2025, though his Onyx victory in Cyprus didn’t help his POY totals given the invitation-only nature of the event. 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 recorded his third seven-figure result of the year in a $100,000 buy-in Triton PLO event, adding 800 POY points and $1,261,000 to his totals for the year. 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.

Just as it had happened early in the year, Lonis recorded 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 during which Lonis improbably folded a set of kings during live streaming coverage of the $25,000 buy-in Super Main Event. As it turns out, his opponent Ryuta Nakai had turned third pair with a straight blocker alongside into a bluff.

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. “No matter what anyone said, 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.”

“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. You’re never going to be able to please everybody. 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

Lonis at a Triton final table

Lonis returned home to Las Vegas and took a few more shots during the last few days of the WPT World Championship festival. He didn’t record any cashes, while Punsri made a deep run and nearly caught up in the POY standings in the dying embers of the race. While Lonis is appreciative of the award and the achievement, his priorities after another busy year on the road were with his family.

“I think I was pretty bad when it was coming down to the wire, playing the events I’m supposed to,” said Lonis. “[Punsri] came back early, I know, and played a few tournaments that were probably way better value for player of the year things. He was definitely a little more aware than I was.”

“I was enjoying myself in the Bahamas, I had my family with me in the Bahamas, so I wasn’t gonna leave early for something like that. So it was kind of in the back of my mind. I don’t chase after too much, and 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 the way I approach the game is definitely fitting, with the whole gorilla thing. It reminds me to always be hungry, to wake up and go for it, every day.”

Lonis’ Top Ten Largest POY-Qualified Scores of 2025:

A look at the top 20 in the final 2025 POY race standings:

The Complete List of Card Player Player of the Year Winners:

Photo credits: Lead image – PGT / Alicia Skillman,  Manuel Kovsca / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd., PGT / Antonio Abrego, EPT Monte Carlo – Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd., Montenegro – Triton Poker, PGT PLO Series II – PGT / Antonio Abrego, Triton final table – Triton Poker.