The 30 year old outlasted a stacked final table that included Perry Friedman, Jeff Lisandro and Bryn Kenney before beating upstart Huu Vinh heads-up to claim the $190,826 first-place prize.
“Any time you win a bracelet it’s awesome,” said Monnette. “This one was really challenging. There were so many tough opponents.”
Monnette, who won his first bracelet in the $2,500 8-Game event last year, thinks people are improving at non-Hold’em events at the WSOP.
“People are definitely getting better,” he said. “With online poker you can play so many games at lower limits. It’s good for people just getting into it. There’s just so information out there these days.”
Prone to the Occasional Outburst
Despite more interest in some of the lesser-known games, Monnette mentioned he’s not convinced there is much growth in store for Seven-Card Stud.
“Stud’s kind of dying,” he said.
“The numbers in that game seem to be decreasing. People aren’t playing it as much. We don’t even play it in the mix that much anymore.
"That’s why this tournament was particularly challenging for me. We haven’t been playing a lot of it.”
Monnette, who hails from Palmdale, California, is a somewhat divisive figure in the poker community, prone to the occasional outburst at the table. His temper has earned him the nickname “Angry John.”
“It doesn’t really bother me,” he said about his reputation. “I mean, I have a temper and I overreact sometimes. People who know me just joke about it.”
Although Monnette is more of a cash-game player, he has plans to make a serious run at the 2012 WSOP.
“I’ll play a lot. I’m definitely gonna play all the limit events, the $50k Players Championship and the Main Event,” he said.
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