(Featured image: from YouTube video)
Poker players have their own favorite game format. For Fernand “JNandez”, it happens to be Pot Limit Omaha. This is among the top popular formats after NLH.
JNandez is a Swiss pro poker player and coach. Just like many other players, he started the journey online in 2005. Later on, he found himself playing both online and live tournaments.
He’s a member of the GGPoker Omaha Squad alongside Sasha Lui, Mikael Yakovlev, and Leon Hsu.
| Full Name: Fernando Habegger | |
| DOB: N/A | |
| Nationality: Swiss | |
| Profession: Pro poker player, author, coach, YouTuber & Twitch streamer, founder of PLO Mastermind | |
| Wife: N/A | |
| WSOP Cashes: 5 | |
| Net Worth and Career Earnings: $2+ million |
Table of Contents
Fernando “JNandez” Habegger Bio
Personal information about this PLO master mind is scarce. (This is actually true for most poker players, except those who really like the attention, like Dan Bilzerian and Bryn Kenney.)
Despite his popularity in the online world, there’s little information regarding his early life and family background. What we know so far is that he is a Swiss national.
He has been focusing on creating lessons and training for his students. It seems like he enjoys being an educator more than being in action on the felt.
Poker Career
Fernando’s poker journey started just like how it did for most players (BlackRain79 and Isildur1 just to name a few) – at virtual poker tables. The thing about this is that you can learn the basics and master skills without worrying about losing your bankroll.
True there are real-money online poker games, but they normally have this free sign up bonus you can spend on the games. So you really won’t have to spend your own resources.
But of course, you are bound to invest and build your own bankroll after playing for sometime, and this is probably what happened to JNandez.
For about 6 years, he focused on playing various poker games online for real money. He was once a fan of NLHE, but that changed when he discovered Pot Limit Omaha. In 2011, Habegger decided to pursue a professional poker life while focusing on PLO.
Since he is a cash player, there are limited records regarding tournament winnings. This includes his biggest win during the 2021 WSOP Online International tourney. He got third place on the $5,000 GGPoker PLO and cashed $140,583.
In 2011, he just had a $15,000 bankroll. He spent majority of this in attending courses to help him become a better player. In short, he invested in himself, and we can all agree that he has reaped the price today.
Then in 2014 , he started creating video content and lessons with the hope of helping enthusiasts master PLO. In fact, he did one-on-one coaching sessions with his students so that they can have a more personalize training session.
Right now, Fernando still enjoys coaching and creating valuable lessons for players in various skill-levels.
JNandez: Coaching Life
Habegger was once an instructor at Phil Galfond’s Run It Once platform. They provide classes for aspiring poker players and help them get better.
Speaking of Phil Galfond, JNandez was one of the first few people to accept Phil’s $1 Million challenge. Habegger initially offered to play 50,000 hands for $10/$20 stakes, but Galfond declined the offer since he was known as a high stakes player.
Later on, Fernando Habegger announced that he withdrew his participation from the challenge indirectly saying that the profit from the match isn’t worth the time and effort he will invest in it.
He was more concerned about giving his shareholders their fair share of return and said that they wouldn’t be getting it when he participates in the challenge.
While he already explained his side of the story, a lot of people in the community still think that JNandez might have underestimated the skills of Galfond when it comes to PLO initially and later realized that, hence, why he backed out.
Aside from ROI, he also became an instructor at Upswing Poker, Doug Polk‘s training site. JNandez was recruited by Upswing to lead the PLO University program for aspiring players.
Everything went smoothly during the first few months of the arrangement. Fernando openly said he was honored to have been invited by nonetheless the poker young legend himself, Polk.
However, there was a controversy that quite stirred the entire community when Habegger announced he will no longer be part of Upswing. The controversy involved the PLO expert himself, Doug Polk, and Joey Ingram. We won’t be digging deeper into the drama, but it would be best to mention a few points about this.
So basically what happened was that there were misunderstandings about the profit sharing and the contract for both parties’ engagement. As an instructor who does mostly the work in providing content, JNandez wanted more share than what he was getting (the latest contract stated a 30% share).
But, it seems like they couldn’t come to agreeable terms as to what should really be a fair profit-sharing scheme, so Fernando consulted a lawyer to look into the contract.
Since he mentioned there was no clause prohibiting him from making his own platform and he felt like it was getting too hard to deal with the people from Upswing, he decided to create his own website which is what we know of now as PLO Mastermind.
This has caused further issues between the two parties, with Doug Polk denying most of Habegger’s allegations in several videos.
In fact, Polk even created a series of videos in response to the accusations of the other party. And just like that, things blew out of proportion and it became one of the most unforgettable controversies in the poker community.
Fernando “JNandez” Net Worth
Since JNandez is well-known for playing cash games, it’s quite hard to determine how rich he really is.
A good estimate would be around $2+ million given the fact that he runs his own PLO poker training site, published a book, and him playing actual games himself.
You might think he didn’t join WSOP events, but he did, though seldom. Here are his cashes so far:
- 3rd place 2021 WSOP Online (International) – $140,583
- 59th place 2021 WSOP Online Millionaire Maker $5M GTD – $8,602
- 43rd place 2021 WSOP Online $1,111 GGPoker.com Caesars Charity – $5,074
What other facts about JNandez do you know of? What’s your take on the controversy he got into? Share your thoughts below!