Jonathan Little was born in Pensacola, Florida. He was studying psychology at the University of West Florida when he began playing poker. He started playing with friends and began studying poker books. Over the course of six months, Little built up a $35,000 bankroll. That's when he decided to leave college behind and play poker for a living.

Little's poker career began mainly as an online venture, but it didn't take long for him to make a name for himself on the live tournament circuit. Little reached his first WPT final table in January, 2007, finishing fifth at the WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to earn more than $317,000 -- just a preview of things to come.

Season VI of the World Poker Tour is when Jonathan Little established himself as a poker star. In the first tournament of the season, Little faced off against a tough final table, outlasting Phil Ivey, Darrell Dicken, and Cory Carroll to win the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown, earning more than $1 million. A few tournaments later, Little had a deep seventh-place finish at the WPT Gulf Coast Poker Championship, followed a month later with a runner-up finish in the WPT North American Poker Championship in Niagara Falls. With one WPT title, two final tables (and nearly a third), four cashes, and more than $1.89 million in earnings, Jonathan Little was awarded the WPT Season VI Player of the Year award.