John Cernuto, well-known as “Miami” John Cernuto, is an American poker professional, born on 10th January, 1944 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He graduated in Finance from the Florida State University. He is married and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. John Cernuto has three children and Tony Cernuto, his son, is an upcoming poker professional. John Cernuto got his nickname, “Miami John”, since he worked as an air traffic controller in the Miami Dade International Airport. He was one among the 11,000 air traffic controllers, who were fired by President Ronald Reagan in the 1981 union strike. Initially, playing poker was his hobby and after losing his job, it became his full-time profession.
At the World Heads-Up Poker Championship in Vienna 2003, John Cernuto competed with poker pros like Ivo Doney, Ram Vaswani, Dave Colclough, Scotty Nguyen, and Padraig Parkinson. He played a marvelous game to finish in third place and win an awesome €60,000 in prize money.
In January 2004, John Cernuto secured 4th place in Event #3 – WPO Limit Omaha Hi/Lo at the 5th Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open (WPO) – World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 2 Tournament and earned a tidy sum of $11,319. In the same year, he walked away with the winner title and $45,600 in the Limit Omaha Hi/Lo (Event #20) at the LA Poker Classic – WPT Season 2 Tournament. In March 2004, John Cernuto grabbed $24,000 for his 1st-place finish in Event #4 – Limit Omaha Hi/Lo of the Shooting Star – WPT Season 2. At the 2004 Plaza Ultimate Poker Challenge, he played in the No-Limit Hold’em event and made $6,800 for his first-place finish. He ended the year with his second-place finish in the Limit Hold’em event at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic II/WPT and $50,052 was added to his bankroll.
John Cernuto participated in the WPT No-Limit Hold’em event of PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – WPT Event Season 3 in January 2005. With his brilliant poker skills and strategies, he finished in the fifth-place and earned a huge sum of $155,800. His 22nd-place finish at the Shooting Star Tournament – WPT Season 3 – Main Event – No-Limit Hold’em held in March got him $30,000. On 1st April 2005, John Cernuto secured eighth place at the World Poker Challenge – WPT Season 3 Main Event – No-Limit Hold’em and bagged $34,507. In the same year, he made an impressive win in Event #9 WSOP Circuit No-Limit Hold’em at the Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Poker Tournament. He outlasted all participants to finish first and walked away with $70,190. In the 36th Annual World Series of Poker 2005, John Cernuto took part in the Limit Hold’em (Event #10) and a whopping $73,285 cash prize was added to his poker accounts.
In March 2006, John Cernuto entered the World Poker Challenge – WPT Season 4 and played in the No-Limit Hold’em (Event #23). After surviving a tough competition, he walked away with the runner-up title and prize money worth $12,424. His 5th-place finish in the Seven Card Stud (Event #28) at the 37th Annual World Series of Poker held in July, 2006, fetched him a good sum of $55,601.
In the same year, his remarkable performance in the No-Limit Hold’em Celebrity at the LA Poker Classic/WPT Event Season 5 Tournament earned him the runner-up title and $50,000 cash prize. In the same month, he secured 4th place in the No-Limit Hold’em event at the Bay 101 Shooting Star/WPT Event Season 5 and walked away with $40,000.
John Cernuto played a brilliant game in Event #10 – WSOP Omaha & Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better at the 39th WSOP 2008 in June, and took away $86,117 for his 3rd-place finish. In July 2008, John Cernuto once again proved his poker skills in the Mixed Hold’em – Limit/No-Limit at the Orleans Open, in which he finished in the first place and pocketed prize money worth $7,900. His total live tournament winnings exceed $4,400,000, as of the year 2008.
John Cernuto dreams of winning ten WSOP bracelets and having won 3 WSOP bracelets, he has moved closer to making his dream a reality. Apart from playing poker, he loves watching movies, listening to Classic Rock, and he plays softball in his spare time.
