KEY TAKEAWAYS: Metairie CPA John Cressend competed in his sixth World Series of Poker Main Event. A featured-table hand with pocket aces went viral, drawing more than 137,000 combined views online. Cressend has earned more than $500,000 in tournament winnings and won multiple WSOP events. The longtime accountant says his background in finance, strategy and risk management complements his poker success.   Metairie native and businessman John Cressend is doing his part to challenge the stereotype that an accountant’s life may be boring. For nearly 20 years, the owner of Cressend CPA has helped individuals and businesses across the Greater New Orleans area navigate their books, taxes, and financial strategies. Away from the office, Cressend’s other competitive outlet has taken him from local card rooms to poker’s biggest stage, where he has played against some of the top players in the world. This summer, the Archbishop Rummel and University of Louisiana at Lafayette graduate competed in his fifth consecutive and sixth overall World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas. He entered the $10,000 main event and landed at a Day 1 featured table that was streamed on the WSOP YouTube channel. One hand quickly made the rounds online. Cressend was all in with pocket aces against two players holding pocket kings and pocket queens. His aces held, and he won the pot. Cressend was later eliminated on Day 2, but not before competing in a field of more than 9,000 players chasing an $85.6 million prize pool, the fourth-largest tournament in the event’s history. The hand has received more than 127,000 views on Facebook and over 10,000 views on YouTube. “Being on a featured table and on TV this year is something that I’ll always remember,” Cressend said. “[Professional poker player] Josh Arieh was at our table, so the cameras stayed on us for a while, and then I had a hand that went viral, so it made for an even cooler experience.” Though he is still chasing a WSOP bracelet, Cressend has won more than a dozen sanctioned tournaments, including a deep stack mixed tournament while at the WSOP this summer and a $400 No-Limit Hold’em WSOP Circuit ring event at Caesars New Orleans in May. He has cashed for more than $500,000 in tournaments and has sat across from some of the biggest names in poker, including Phil Hellmuth, former WSOP Main Event champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, and Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 WSOP Main Event champion who helped inspire Cressend and a generation of amateur players. Moneymaker’s unlikely championship run helped fuel the poker boom on television, online, in neighborhood cash games, and inside casino poker rooms. Like Cressend, Moneymaker was an accountant. “I was in college and had a waiter job at Bennigan’s,” Cressend said. “I remember seeing Moneymaker on ESPN running through all these professionals, and I was like, ‘I can do this. Why not me?’ So, I remember taking my tips to neighborhood games or playing online. Poker was booming, and I was good at it. It helped me pay for rent when I was fresh out of college and an unemployed, young accountant.” From family card tables to the poker room Cressend’s poker story did not start in a casino. It started around the family card table with rummy, five-card draw, seven-card stud, Go Fish, and almost anything else that could be played with a deck of 52 cards. “I remember being around cards since I was in diapers,” Cressend said. “My family was always playing something, so a table full of card players has always felt natural to me. I was five years old constantly playing a poker video game on TV. I just loved playing cards.” In 2007, Cressend moved back to the New Orleans area and joined his father’s accounting business, which has served the Greater New Orleans area for more than 40 years. Cressend later became a partner. Today, he and his wife, Christy, who is also a CPA, run the firm together. “I am one of three children, and my siblings had little interest in taking over the business, so my dad asked me if I wanted to give it a shot, and my wife and I did,” Cressend said. “I enjoy accounting and helping people set themselves up for their futures. Working in numbers, strategy, and risk management helps take my poker game to another level.” Cressend took a brief hiatus from poker while he and Christy focused on the business and raised their two children. He still played occasionally, placing 10th in a WSOP Circuit tournament at then-Harrah’s Casino, now Caesars New Orleans, in 2011, followed by tournament appearances in 2014 and 2015 at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi. In 2017, as his children got older, Cressend returned to poker more seriously, making it part of his routine before and after tax season. Back on the tournament circuit Cressend competed in six tournaments in 2017, including two WSOP Circuit New Orleans wins; four tournaments in 2018, including his first WSOP experience in Las Vegas; and nine tournaments in 2019, when he recorded his biggest cash of more than $62,000 in the $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em WSOP Circuit Main Event in New Orleans. “That’s when I kind of knew that I could compete at the highest level, and my wife was convinced as well, which was most important,” Cressend laughed. “It truly is a hobby for me. It’s my golf. As long as it stays fun for me, I’ll keep doing it.” Since 2022, Cressend has become a regular summer presence at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. His best main event run came when he reached Day 3 before being eliminated. “Vegas is a different animal of competition,” Cressend said. “No matter how good you feel coming out of local and regional events, it’s a different experience and truly the stage for the best of the best. I’ve grown my game a lot by playing out there.” Since returning home from his latest WSOP experience — complete with a featured table appearance and an all-in hand that made the rounds on YouTube — Cressend has laughed about the attention. There have been text messages, Facebook comments, phone calls, and even clients coming into the office after recognizing him from TV. His children roll their eyes when he says, “Ya know, dad went viral. I’m kind of a big deal now.” ...read more read less