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Whether it’s playing pool or poker, John “Cracker” Reynolds has excelled at both during his career.
Reynolds has played pool for 30 years, preferring nine-ball and one-pocket. But he has called himself a poker player for over 20 years and has found even more success at the poker table.
Reynolds shared with PokerNews that his poker journey began when the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, opened up its poker room.
Reynolds had already played in a home game with some friends, and one of those friends got Reynolds a job at the Hard Rock.
This proved to be a successful venture for Reynolds, who quickly moved up the ranks and rose to the role of senior floor supervisor and was tasked with helping to train five casinos in how to run a poker room. Reynolds has played several roles in the poker world, including writing for PocketFives forums, writing a personal blog, and coaching and training.
Reynolds credits these various roles as being integral to his improvement as a player.
“I started playing a lot more in 2010. I joined a training site and took some lessons,” Reynolds said. “My game went from average to growing exponentially.”
Reynolds transitioned to live poker after the online poker scene cratered in the wake of Black Friday in the United States.
Reynolds has been a fixture at RunGood events over the years and was part of RGPS history as he finished third in the first-ever RGPS Main Event in Joplin back in 2014 for $19,319. Reynolds has accumulated just over $88,000 in winnings at RunGood events since then, adding to a total of over $650,000 in total career earnings according to The Hendon Mob.
The Tulsa resident has claimed one RGPS ring, but has 24 cashes in his career on the circuit. He shared that he still hopes to add more hardware to his collection.
“I’m always trying to get more rings,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds shared that he took approximately 15 years off from pool as his poker career began to take off, but that he began to go back to the pool tables after COVID. This long break proved to be more of a help than a hindrance.
“I got my game back more than I ever thought I could,” Reynolds said.
Despite that, Reynolds shared that poker is still his main game and takes up most of his time, as he still prefers the poker felt over the pool table felt.
Reynolds currently has 42,500 on Day 1b of the RGPS Passport Joplin Main Event.
