Over the weekend, 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up John Racener received his third DUI, according to the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. Early Saturday morning, law enforcement officials stopped Racener at West Azeele Street and South Westland Avenue.
According to the Times, “He refused blood-alcohol testing and was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on $1,000 bail.” The Florida news outlet also profiled Racener’s past run-ins with the law: “Racener has been arrested in Hillsborough County three times before – on charges of driving under the influence in 2005 and 2007 and on a misdemeanor battery charge in 2009, according to jail records.”
Racener has not updated his Twitter feed since December 9th at 1:01am, when he bowed out in fourth place from the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $232,000. Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari ultimately won the marquee WPT tournament, which saw Andrew “good2cu” Robl, PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso, Kirk Morrison, and Ted Lawson also reach the six-handed final table. At the time, Racener was one month removed from heads-up play in the WSOP Main Event.
Racener banked $5.5 million in the Main Event and played second fiddle to Jonathan Duhamel, who became the tournament’s first Canadian champ. The Full Tilt Poker pro nearly outlasted the entire 7,319-player field and recorded his third final table. Racener hails from Tampa and sported logos for CardRunners at the final table. When play reached heads-up, Racener switched to a Full Tilt patch.
A 22-page thread about Racener’s run-in with the law popped up on TwoPlusTwo, where posters were largely critical of the poker player’s decision to drink and drive. One member, however, explained, “Very naive to think most people don’t or haven’t driven while over the legal limit. You go to a restaurant and look around, you will see like six couples with a bottle of wine sitting in front of them. None of those people are driving home? I mean they might not be ‘hammered,’ but I would guess they are over the legal limit. Is it right to drive while drunk? No. Is it right to drive after two glasses of wine? No. Do people tend to do it? Yes.”
Racener broke onto the live poker scene four years ago, when he finished third in the WSOP Circuit Championship in Atlantic City for $103,000. One year later, he took eighth in the WPT Borgata Winter Open, also in Atlantic City, for $166,000. He claimed a Circuit gold ring in December 2007 in Atlantic City, besting a final table that included future November Niner Eric Buchman.
In the online arena, Racener won the challenging PokerStars $100 Rebuy in August for $24,000. On Valentine’s Day, he took second in the UB.com $100,000 Guarantee for $23,000. More recently, Racener came away with a third place finish in the PokerStars $200 Rebuy for $19,000 in October.
