John Spadavecchia is an American professional poker player from

Lighthouse Point, Florida Lighthouse Point is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale located in Broward County, Florida, United States. The suburb was named for the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, which is located in nearby Hillsboro Beach. As of the 2020 census, the population of Ligh ...

. Spadavecchia has been a regular on the

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a " heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of ta ...

circuit since the 1980s, with his first finish

in the money In finance, moneyness is the relative position of the current price (or future price) of an underlying asset (e.g., a stock) with respect to the strike price of a derivative, most commonly a call option or a put option. Moneyness is firstly a thr ...

of a

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

(WSOP) event coming in the

1988 World Series of Poker The 1988 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe between 5 May 1988, and 21 May 1988. Preliminary events Main Event There were 167 entrants to the main event on 16 May 1988. Each paid $10,00 ...

in the $10,000

no limit No Limit may refer to: Music Record labels *No Limit Records, a record label founded by Master P * No Limit Forever Records, a record label founded by Romeo Miller, son of Master P Albums * ''No Limit'' (Art Pepper album), 1977 * ''No Limit'' ...

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fa ...

main event where he finished 28th, earning him $8,750.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Poker career

Spadavecchia has cashed in a total of three World Series of Poker main events, the first coming in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

. The second cash was in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

where he made the final table, placing third, earning him $294,000. The third came in 2007 where he placed 60th, earning him $154,194. He has cashed in the WSOP events more than two dozen times. Spadavecchia won his bracelet in the 1991 WSOP, defeating three-time bracelet winner

Dewey Tomko Duane "Dewey" Tomko (born December 31, 1946, in Glassport, Pennsylvania) is an American former kindergarten teacher turned professional poker player, based in Winter Haven, Florida. Tomko was the runner-up in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) $ ...

, to win the title and $58,500 cash prize. He came close to winning a second bracelet in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

in the $2,500 Seven Card Stud event, but lost to Dan Robison in the heads-up play. He has cashed in the World Series of Poker Circuit Events a total of seven times, including two first-place finishes, for a total of $791,796. That figure puts him third on the all-time total WSOP circuit event earnings list. His biggest career win came in the 2005/2006 WSOP Circuit Event - Caesars Palace no limit hold 'em $10,000 buy-in Championship. There he placed first, earning him $648,320. That win qualified him to play in the 2006

World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions The World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions is an invitational freeroll poker event. Wins in this event do not count as official WSOP bracelets, but the winner receives a large trophy in the shape of the official World Series of Poker log ...

. As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,500,000. His 26 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,104,613 of those winnings.World Series of Poker Earnings
, worldseriesofpoker.com

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spadavecchia, John American poker players Living people World Series of Poker bracelet winners World Series of Poker Circuit event winners Year of birth missing (living people) Super Bowl of Poker event winners People from Lighthouse Point, Florida Sportspeople from Broward County, Florida