"Miami" John Cernuto admits he is a stress junkie. he worked as an air traffic controller at Miami-Dade before being fired along with more than eleven thousand fellow controllers in 1981 by President Reagan. He moved to Las Vegas and the poker tables to learn a new occupation,playing poker full time. John says the stress of being a professional poker player is greater than anything he experienced as an air traffic controller. He brings to the table the ability from his controller days of pre-planning his every move regardless of what his opponents do.


Notes: Born: Jersey City, New Jersey


Education: Graduate of Florida State University


Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada


Career Highlights: Won his first major tournament at Caesar's in 1988 when he only lost one hand during the entire event. John owns three WSOP Champion's bracelets.


He made his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table in 1989 in the $5,000 seven card stud, finishing fourth in an event also featuring David Sklansky, Humberto Brenes and Gabe Kaplan.


Another five WSOP money finishes followed before he won his first bracelet in the 1996 $1,500 seven card stud split tournament. He also won the $2,000 no limit hold'em event in 1997 and the $1,500 limit omaha event in 2002.


In 2003, he won the third World Heads-Up Poker Championship in Vienna, outlasting a field including Ivo Donev, Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani, Dave "El Blondie" Colclough, Scotty Nguyen and Padraig Parkinson on the way to the €60,000 grand prize.


Cernuto has also made one World Poker Tour (WPT) final table at the 2005 PokerStars Carribean Adventure event won by John Gale.


As of 2005, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,700,000.




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