| Year | Event | Result | Prize | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | WSOP $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 1st place — debut WSOP appearance, first bracelet | — | WSOP Bracelet |
| 1980 | WSOP Main Event | 3rd place — deepest Main Event run, 73-player field | $109,500 | Main Event |
| 1981 | WSOP Main Event | 6th place — second consecutive Main Event final table | — | Main Event |
| 1986 | WSOP Limit Hold’em | 1st place — second bracelet, a decade after his first | — | WSOP Bracelet |
| 1987–1997 | WSOP Main Event (multiple years) | Five top-15 finishes: 11th (1987), 15th (1988), 14th (1989), 11th (1991), 13th (1997) | — | Main Event |
| 1991 | WSOP $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | 1st place — third bracelet, first PLO title | — | WSOP Bracelet |
| 1994 | WSOP Pot-Limit Hold’em | 1st place — fourth bracelet | — | WSOP Bracelet |
| 2000 | WSOP Limit Hold’em | 1st place — fifth bracelet | — | WSOP Bracelet |
| 2001 | WSOP Seniors Championship | 1st place — sixth and final bracelet | — | WSOP Bracelet |
| 2005 | WPT World Championship, Bellagio | 51st place — first WPT cash | $30,000 | WPT Cash |
| 2006 | WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open | 19th place — second WPT cash | $27,694 | WPT Cash |
| 2008 | Poker After Dark — “The Mayfair Club” episode | 1st place — winner-take-all vs. Harrington, Lederer & Appleman | $120,000 | Televised Win |
In a game dominated by full-time professionals who eat, sleep, and breathe poker, Jay Heimowitz did something arguably more impressive: he competed part-time, kept his amateur status, ran a business, raised a family and still walked away with six WSOP bracelets spanning five decades of competition.
Heimowitz is one of only four players in World Series of Poker history alongside Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Billy Baxter to have won a bracelet in four different decades. That kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident. It speaks to a player whose understanding of the game runs deep enough to stay relevant across multiple eras of poker, through the pre-boom years, the television explosion, and beyond.
Baseball Cards to Budweiser: A Life Built on Sharp Thinking
Heimowitz was raised on New York City’s Lower East Side by his parents Morris a bar manager and avid horse bettor and Essie, a book bindery worker, developing an early interest in gambling through family influences, though he later channelled it into disciplined poker play.
He started early. Heimowitz began playing poker for baseball cards at the age of 9. That detail matters it tells you something about how he learned the game, not from theory or books, but from reading opponents, managing stakes, and competing for something real, even as a child.
By the time he was old enough to enlist, he was already a formidable player. He went on to join the U.S. Army; by the time he left the service at age 21, Heimowitz had won approximately $10,000 playing against his fellow servicemen. He then did something that reveals his broader character: he took that money and built something with it. Heimowitz used this money to invest in a beer company, which he later sold to Budweiser. He became the youngest Budweiser distributor in the United States at 23, working 80-hour weeks to build a business that would fund the rest of his life and his poker career.
His motto, which peers have quoted admiringly: “Take pride in your work, whatever it is.”
The Mayfair Club: Where New York’s Best Sharpened Their Game
Before the WSOP defined poker’s elite, New York had its own proving ground. Heimowitz was one of the original players to help establish the Mayfair Club as a premier poker house. The Mayfair was the New York card room that produced some of the greatest poker minds in history — a tight circle of players who pushed each other relentlessly in the years before the game went mainstream.
The Mayfair connection matters for poker history. Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer, Mickey Appleman, and Steve Zolotow all came out of that scene. The fact that Heimowitz was one of its founding figures places him at the very root of a lineage that would go on to shape American poker for decades.
Six WSOP Bracelets: A Record That Defies His Amateur Status
Heimowitz first appeared at the WSOP in 1975, and his debut was anything but tentative. He won his first bracelet in the No-Limit Hold’em $5,000 event in 1975. That immediate success set the tone for a WSOP career that would stretch across half a century of competition.
His six bracelets came in a range of formats, which speaks to genuine poker versatility rather than mastery of a single game: his next bracelet came in 1986 in a Limit Hold’em event, then a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet in 1991, followed by a Pot-Limit Hold’em event in 1994. He picked up his fifth in 2000 in a Limit Hold’em event, then won his sixth in the 2001 Seniors Event.
For poker enthusiasts, that spread across formats is significant. Pot-Limit Omaha, Limit Hold’em, No-Limit Hold’em — each requires a fundamentally different strategic approach. Winning bracelets across all three formats marks Heimowitz as a true student of the game, not a specialist riding a single edge.
The Main Event: Seven Cashes in Ten Years
If the bracelet count is impressive, his Main Event record borders on extraordinary. Though Heimowitz has never won a Main Event bracelet, he has an astounding seven finishes in the top fifteen. He made the final table twice, finishing 3rd in 1980 and 6th in 1981. WSOP
The Main Event was particularly kind to him over a ten-year span he finished 11th in 1987, 15th in 1988, 14th in 1989, 11th in 1991, and 13th in 1997. Consistently reaching the money in the world’s most prestigious poker tournament while maintaining an amateur status and running a business is the kind of record that puts things in perspective. Most dedicated professionals never come close.
His deepest run came in 1980, where he finished third for $109,500 in a 73-player field.
Poker After Dark: The Mayfair Reunion
One of the more satisfying chapters of Heimowitz’s later career came in 2008, when NBC’s Poker After Dark assembled a table of former Mayfair Club alumni for a winner-take-all showdown. Competing in a $20,000 buy-in, winner-take-all No-Limit Hold’em tournament against fellow Mayfair Club alumni including Mickey Appleman, Dan Harrington, Mike Shichtman, Howard Lederer, and Steve Zolotow Heimowitz emerged victorious, earning $120,000.
It was a fitting result. The player who helped build the Mayfair Club went back to that table against the peers who had sharpened his game, and won.
What the Poker World Says About Him
Mike Sexton of Card Player Magazine has been among the most vocal in his praise, stating that Heimowitz alongside fellow amateur Lyle Berman — represents the very best of what poker has to offer, both at and away from the table.
Many would be quick to point at a Tennessee accountant as the most successful amateur in poker history, but with six WSOP bracelets dating back to 1975, Heimowitz has the better record.That’s a pointed observation Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 Main Event win is often cited as the defining amateur poker moment, but Heimowitz’s sustained excellence over decades makes a far more compelling case for what an amateur can achieve in this game.
Life Beyond the Felt
Heimowitz lives with his wife Carole, whom he married in 1960. They have four sons Eddie, Lonnie, Roy, and Neil and nine grandchildren.Two of his sons also play poker, keeping the tradition alive in the next generation.
Outside the game, he has always maintained the discipline that defined his business career. He exercises daily, keeps a careful diet, and pursues skiing and fishing the habits of someone who understands that longevity at the table requires longevity off it.
As of 2019, Heimowitz has accumulated $2,121,439 in total live tournament earnings, with his 43 WSOP cashes accounting for $1,526,281 of those winnings.
For any serious player studying what a poker career can look like without sacrificing everything else in life, Jay Heimowitz is the template.