Poker Player - Johnny Chan
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Johnny Chan was born in Canton, China later moving to Hong Kong with his family, however Johnny did not settle there, instead at the age of nine Johnny and his family later moved to Arizona before finally moving to Houston Texas where his family settled and eventually owned a few restaurants. Johnny spoke very little English and found that he was in a small minority finding it hard to communicate with other children around him. At the age of 21 Johnny dropped out of the University of Texas to embark on a career as a professional gambler and become a full time resident in Las Vegas, this was in the early eighties and Johnny never looked back. Poker wasn't Johnny's only vice he was also a keen bowler and often used bowling as a cover for playing poker at various different casinos. In some respects being an Asian poker player gave Johnny an advantage, Asian players were uncommon and the other players began to underestimate his playing ability and would call his hand just to satisfy there own curiosity, in short they were throwing money at him. Before this Johnny would be the one throwing money at players in his first year of poker as he lacked the experience of knowing when to quit, once he had learned to hold himself he began to establish himself as a much better player.
Johnny leapt into fame in the late eighties when he entered the1987 championship event of the World Series of Poker and won, he then went on to also win the 1988 World Series of Poker Final with key footage of the match later being used in the movie Rounders, starring Matt Damon with Johnny also making a cameo appearance. Johnny had won twice in a row he had begun to make a huge impact on the poker scene with Jerry Buss the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and also a poker player promising Johnny an NBA championship ring if he could make it three wins in a row, unfortunately Johnny came second in the 1989 World Series of Poker to Phil Hellmuth.
Johnny is also known for keeping a 'lucky' orange to the table with him, once he had won the WSOP title twice other players began to bring fruit to the table with them in the hope that it would improve there chances of winning. Johnny later revealed that he only brought the orange to the table because it had a pleasant smell as smoking at tournament was allowed then and the smell of smoke bothered him, Johnny used to smoke but he no longer smokes or drinks alcohol.
Johnny has won ten WSOP bracelets these include his 1985 win in the $1,000 Limit Hold'em winning $171,000, the 1987 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship winning $625,000, the1988 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship winning $700,000, the 1994 $1,500 Seven Card Stud winning $135,600, the1997 $5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw winning $164,250, the 2000 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha winning $178,800, the 2002 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Gold Bracelet Match Play winning $34,000, the 2003 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em winning $224,400, the 2003 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha the $158,100 and the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em winning $303,025 in 2005. Johnny also has other tournament achievements including a 1st place finish at the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em 2003 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a 1st place finish at the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 2003 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and in 2004 he finished in 8th place of the $15,000 No Limit Hold'em 2004 Five-Diamond World Poker Classic also in Las Vegas. Johnny also competed in the $400,000 Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament in February finishing in second place to Gus Hansen, he later competed in the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament II defeating 22 of the poker worlds best players, he then defeated Todd Brunson in the finals to take first place winning the $400,000 first prize.
Johnny also owns a fast food franchise in the Las Vegas Stratosphere Hotel and consults at various different casinos, he also wrote for Card Player Magazine and has released an instructional book based on several different types of poker and is later planning to release a follow up book, which focuses on the limit Hold'em strategy.
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