John Hennigan

John Hennigan is an American poker player and seven-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2018.

Biography

Born on August 10, 1970, Hennigan learned to play pool at a young age, traveling to play on the pool circuit. A big gambler, Hennigan gained the nickname "Johnny World" due to his willingness to gamble on anything in the world.

Gambling on pool would lead him to poker, with his first recorded cash coming in 1997. In 2002, he won his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament for $117,320.

That same year, he placed fourth in the WPT’s Five-Diamond World Poker Classic for over $80,000. To close out the year, he took down the Main Event at the United States Poker Championship in Atlantic City for $216,000.

With one gold WSOP bracelet wrapped around his wrist, John came back in 2004 to claim another one in the $5,000 Limit Hold’em event for $325,000.

Throughout his time on the tournament circuit, Hennigan continued to play cash games on the side. He sat in on some of the largest games around with the best players. He was often referred to as one of the best, all-around cash players and he earned a lot of respect from his peers as being an extremely tough opponent to face.

In 2007, Hennigan traveled back to Atlantic City for the Borgata Winter Open. He came out on top of the Championship Event and earned over $1.6 million. In 2008, Johnny World won the Ante Up for Africa Charity Event at the WSOP.

John Hennigan WSOP Bracelets

Ten years after his second bracelet, Hennigan won one of the most prestigious poker tournaments on the calendar with victory in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for over $1.5 million.

In 2016, Hennigan won bracelet number four in Event #47: $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Championship having admitted he was just "killing time" between high stakes cash games.

"Those games are so big, it's hard to concentrate on tournaments," Hennigan said. "I was just really out of gas in the cash games, so I just came over here to kill time. I registered for this at midnight, which is foolish, you give up so many levels. But that's what I did and I'm glad I did it."

In 2018, Hennigan added another bracelet in the $10k H.O.R.S.E. against a star-studded field, while narrowly missing out while his first stud bracelet in 2019 saw him take his personal tally to six.

At the 2024 WSOP, became the ninth player in history to win a seventh bracelet, and was the first player to hit the milestone since Men "The Master" Nguyen, who achieved the feat in 2010. Hennigan's latest WSOP triumph came in Event #7: $1,500 Dealer's Choice, which netted the Hall of Famer $138,296.