From Teacher to Poker Pro: The Journey of Jonathan Newman
We want to take some time to introduce you to a couple of poker players from Ontario that you may or may not know about yet as these two individuals are up and coming players and starting to make waves in the poker world – so when they hit big, you’ll know who introduced them to you first! We recently talked about Bobby Winger, but this time we are looking at “fuzztacular” Jonathan Newman!
A Bit about Jonathan Newman
Newman studied to become an elementary school teacher and spent years earning his degrees at several Canadian universities. In 2017, he started playing more online in the micro stakes when he started having more disposable income, and eventually started seeing success. He started watching some of the popular poker streamers of the time and played in the evenings and weekends while teaching.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot for Jonathan – teachers during the pandemic were stretched beyond their limits with synchronous and asynchronous learning and his dream was to become a full time poker pro – so in 2022, he was at a point financially where his skills and success put him into a good place, he took the leap, jumping into the world of being an online poker pro and putting his teaching career on the back burner.
His big break came in 2022, when Jonathan was dedicated to the game and took on the ON-COOP (Ontario Championship of Online Poker) leaderboard – this was the first summer that the province of Ontario was under the new regulations and poker rooms were fenced-in – PokerStars offered a PSPC Platinum Pass to the top performer across both the low and high tournaments. Newman played 17 days straight, winning 4 ON-COOP titles and won the low leaderboard, pocketing an additional $3k. He also placed second on the high leaderboard for an additional $3500 won. When all the scores were added up, he beat the overall 2nd place competitor by 22 points, netting him the PSPC package.
His fortune took a huge turn right before the PSPC when he entered a $300k GTD tournament online on Christmas and took it down to score a massive $67k USD prize. And while that ride did not materialize into cashing the PSPC, he did score another massive win in the $550 Mystery Bounty during the series in The Bahamas – he made day 2 of that event, scoring 3 bounties and a 23rd place finish. He netted $1,100 for his placing, but then opened the envelopes to discover $26,500 in them, including one of the two top prizes of $25k!
Newman did not stop there though – since his score in The Bahamas, here are some of the big prizes he’s taken down!
ACR
| Position | Tournament | Prize | Player Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | $80k GTD Tournament | $15,000 | 145 players |
| 51 | Venom PKO $5M GTD | $11,250 | 341 players |
| 9 | Hi5 $750k GTD Tournament | $11,865 | 755 players |
| 20 | Venom Mystery Bounty $8M GTD | $29,484 | 3234 players |
| 6 | $750k GTD Tournament | $29,746 | 751 players |
| 1 | $100k GTD Tournament | $23,500 | 67 players |
PokerStars
| Position | Tournament | Prize | Player Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500 NLHE PKO | $10,000 | 36 players |
| 1 | Winter Series $300 NLHE Main Event | $23,000 | 479 players |
| 1 | ON-COOP $500 NLHE PKO | $10,800 | 39 players |
| 1 | $1k NLHE ON-COOP | $22,612 | 53 players |
| 1 | Sunday Super High Roller $500 NLHE | $10,000 | 26 players |
| 1 | $500 NLHE Mystery Bounty | $22,487 | 96 players |
| 1 | 2023 NAPT | $12,000 NAPT Satellite Package | – |
888 Poker Ontario
Finished 1st or 2nd 10 times in the Sunday High Roller for at least $5k every tournament.
WSOP on GGPoker Ontario
| Position | Tournament | Prize | Player Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WSOP Ontario Bracelet Main Event | $123,896 | 729 players |
| 1 | $800 NLH Bounty Hunters Championship | WSOP Circuit Ring and $11,000 | – |
| 2 | $1,500 WSOP Online Bracelet Series | $41,962 | – |
Live Results
| Position | Tournament | Prize | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $1,600 NLH Wynn Summer Classic | $69,000 | July 3, 2024 |
| 544 | 2024 WSOP Main Event | $32,500 | July 3, 2024 |
| 51 | $10,400 WSOP Paradise GGMillion$ Championship | $22,190 | December 16, 2024 |
| 5 | $3,300 NLH High Roller WSOP Circuit | $28,000 | September 1, 2024 |
| 34 | $1,650 NLH Mystery Millions | $17,600 | December 3, 2023 |
| 70 | $5,300 NAPT Main Event in Las Vegas | $12,950 | November 5, 2024 |
Jonathan’s live winnings top $341k and currently has over $1 Million in online earnings to date. A total of 37 of his cashes have come via the WSOP – 12 in bracelet events both live in Vegas and online; 19 circuit cashes, and 4 live Canadian circuit cashes, and it’s safe to say that 2025 is going to be a banner year for Jonathan. In 6 years, we went from a full-time elementary school teacher to one of the top up and coming poker players in Ontario and the sky clearly is the limit for him. What will he win next?
Safe to say – only time will tell.
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- Rakeback 5%
- $55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins
T&Cs Apply | Play Responsibly | GambleAware
18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
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- 1,000 Chips Daily
- FREE 5,000 Chips
T&Cs Apply | Play Responsibly | GambleAware
T&Cs Apply | Play Responsibly | GambleAware
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- 2,500 Gold Coins + 0.50 Sweeps Coins
T&Cs Apply | Play Responsibly | GambleAware
18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
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- 150% up to 25 SC
T&Cs Apply | Play Responsibly | GambleAware
Terms & Conditions apply
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- 5%
- 200% Gold on 1st Purchase
T&Cs Apply | Play Responsibly | GambleAware
Terms & Conditions apply
