Joshua Turner

Last Updated on September 29, 2026 by Bala Kumar

Joshua “JT” Turner was one of the most accomplished players in the history of the World Series of Poker Circuit. The St. Louis native won seven gold rings, collected multiple Casino Champion titles and made deep runs at the WSOP and the Circuit’s season-ending championship. He was known for building huge chip leads early and for being one of the most loyal and well-liked people in the poker community. Turner died on September 2, 2026, at the age of 46.

Josh Turner Quick Facts

Early Life & Poker Roots

Turner was born on December 20, 1979, and grew up in Missouri. Very little has been published about his early life or how he first got into poker, but his hometown shaped his career. St. Louis was where he won his most famous title and where much of his early success came.

By March 2016, Turner had 12 live tournament titles, and five of them had come in St. Louis, three of those in Hollywood Poker Open events. At that point he had just under $700,000 in lifetime live earnings. Over the next three years he more than tripled that total.

Rise to Prominence: Career Timeline

The 2016 Season: Josh Turner’s Greatest Year

2016 was the year Turner went from a strong regional player to one of the most feared names on the Circuit. That season he won three rings and two Casino Champion titles, and his results earned him a third straight at-large seat into the Global Casino Championship.

2016 Key Results: January: Ring at WSOPC Tunica. Summer: Third WSOPC Global Casino Championship ($150,851). September: Fifth career ring and Casino Champion title at WSOPC Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas.

At the 2016 Global Casino Championship, Turner and eventual winner Said El-Yousfi were far ahead of the field for almost the entire event. Turner grabbed the lead on Day 1 and held it through most of Day 2. With three players left, Yasin Ahmady doubled through him, leaving him short, and he was eliminated shortly after in third place for $150,851.

A month later in Las Vegas, the race for Casino Champion at Planet Hollywood was one of the closest ever. Turner and Kindah Sakkal both finished with 75 points, and Turner won the tiebreaker on earnings, $15,936 to $15,025.

WSOP Circuit Ring Wins

Turner won seven WSOP Circuit gold rings across 2014–2018. By late 2016 he was part of a group of Circuit regulars with five rings, alongside names like Brandon Fish, Kevin McColgan and Mike Leah, and he went on to pass them.

The Lumiere Place Main Event is the ring he is remembered for most. The $1,675 event drew 415 entries and a $622,500 prize pool, and Turner finished as the chip leader on both Day 1 and Day 2 before closing out the win on Day 3. At the final table he came down to heads-up against Spain’s Javier Zarco, and he won the key hand when Zarco moved all in with an ace and Turner flopped a set. After the win, Turner said he would never want to win a ring anywhere else but his hometown.

His seventh ring came in November 2018 back at Planet Hollywood, where he won Event #4, a $400 No-Limit Hold’em, for $15,235.

World Series of Poker Record

Turner never won a gold bracelet, but he was a consistent presence at the WSOP for more than a decade. His official WSOP.com profile shows:

His best WSOP summer came in 2018, when he reached three bracelet-event final tables, including a third-place finish in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack for $294,760, the biggest cash of his life.

Biggest Career Cashes (All-Time)

WSOP Global Casino Championship Record

The Global Casino Championship is an invitation-only event for the Circuit’s best players of the season. Turner qualified several times and made two deep runs.

In 2019 at Harrah’s Cherokee, Turner dominated Day 1, bagging 649,000 chips, close to 220 big blinds, while the 128-player field shrank to 53. It was another example of the early-chip-lead pattern that defined his career.

Career Earnings Growth

Real-Time Earnings by Database (September 2026)

Different databases track different sets of events, so Turner’s totals vary by source:

His last WSOP cash came in July 2025 in the $600 No-Limit Hold’em Ultra Stack, where he finished 448th out of 7,057 players. His final recorded cash anywhere came in August 2026 at The Lodge Card Club.

Other Tour Titles

Turner’s success wasn’t limited to the WSOP. He also won titles on the RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) and the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), along with many cashes at The Lodge in Texas and in Las Vegas. He also won multiple Hollywood Poker Open events in St. Louis, and in 2016 he led the HPO St. Louis Regional Main Event after Day 1b with 277,000 chips.

Poker Strategy & Playing Style

Turner was a classic Circuit grinder: a high-volume, No-Limit Hold’em specialist who played mid-stakes fields week after week and turned consistency into titles.

Early chip accumulation. His biggest results followed the same pattern. He would build a big stack on Day 1 and then use it to control the table. WSOP’s own coverage of the 2016 Global Casino Championship said he was no stranger to that kind of runaway performance.

Turbo and fast-structure skill. At least two of his rings came in $365 Turbo events, which reward aggression and quick, confident decisions.

Volume and consistency. Casino Champion titles are awarded for points across a whole series, not a single win, so earning them showed that he could cash and final-table repeatedly at the same stop.

Want to sharpen your own No-Limit Hold’em game? You can practice with free online poker games before taking a shot at a live event.

Personal Life

In September 2016, the night before winning his fifth ring at Planet Hollywood, Turner proposed to his girlfriend at the top of the Eiffel Tower replica in Las Vegas. His fiancée, Lisa Rosenburg Fleishman, was a former University of Maryland tennis star who picked up poker tips from him. She finished 12th in a $365 Turbo at the same Planet Hollywood stop.

Friends describe him as someone whose loyalty mattered as much as his results. That reputation is reflected in the tributes that followed his death.

Passing & Tributes

Turner died on September 2, 2026, after a two-year battle with cancer. His mother shared the news on his X account and said he fought his illness with the same toughness he brought to the poker table. A memorial service was held on September 8 at Kutis Affton Chapel in St. Louis.

His close friend Daniel Lowery, a 21-time Circuit ring winner, shared the news on Facebook and called Turner one of the most genuine people in the game. Lowery said he knew Turner was sick but did not know the illness was terminal. Many players reacted with shock and posted memories and condolences across social media.

Why Josh Turner Will Be Remembered

Turner won seven WSOP Circuit rings, putting him in the top 50 all-time for Circuit ring wins. He won a Main Event in his own hometown wire to wire. His three-ring, multi-Casino-Champion 2016 season is one of the strongest single years any Circuit regular has had. He made deep runs in the Circuit’s invitation-only championship in both 2016 and 2019. He reached 39 WSOP final tables and three bracelet-event final tables in a single summer. And he kept competing until just weeks before he died, cashing at his favorite room in August 2026.

Final Summary

Josh “JT” Turner came up through the card rooms of St. Louis and grew into one of the defining players of the WSOP Circuit’s golden era. He never won the bracelet he chased, but his seven rings, Casino Champion titles and $2.4 million in live cashes placed him among the Circuit’s elite. His career was built on hard work, volume and the ability to take over a tournament early and never let go.

More than his results, Turner is remembered as a friend. He showed up, played hard and treated people right, which is why so many in the poker world felt his loss so deeply.

Rest in peace, JT.

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