Johnny Chan Poker Profile
Johnny Chan's story of success is one of the unlikeliest in the world. In 1957, nobody would have ever guessed that the child of humble parents in Guangzhou, China, would one day grow up to become an American icon.
When he was six years old, his parents moved to Hong Kong and then when he was 12, they moved again to the United States, looking for a better life. The family eventually settled in Houston, Texas where they started a successful chain of restaurants. The young Johnny Chan had to learn English as he went, making the transition difficult.
He spent much of his younger years hanging out in a bowling alley where he became an impressive young bowler. His first run-in with poker occurred at that bowling alley and he hasn't looked back since. Right away he jumped into the small stakes cash games that the other bowlers played in and made a decent chunk of change.
His poker skills improved and he consistently made money playing in cash games around Houston until he decided to give it a shot at the tables in Vegas. At just 16 years of age, he snuck into a Las Vegas casino and played his first cash game. He was wildly successful his first night but lost everything on his second night there.
The Vegas experience was a good one but he knew he wasn't ready to make a full-time gig out of it. He returned to Houston with his family and entered the university there, studying hotel and restaurant management. Just shy of his graduation, however, he left the university and moved to Las Vegas to pursue his poker dreams.
It was a tough transition at first, with Johnny's bankroll going through boom and bust cycles. He stuck with it though and slowly improved his skills. By the end of 1981, Johnny Chan had already earned his nickname, "The Orient Express." It was coined during a tournament in 1981 in which he eliminated all 9 other opponent at the final table in under an hour.
His first major tournament win came in 1985, when he won the $1,000 Limit Holdem Event at the World Series of Poker. The first place prize of $171,000 was great money for the 28 year old Chan but he wasn't done yet. He went on to win two WSOP Main Event championships in a row, taking first place in the 1987 and 1988 Main Events. No other player has done that since, and it's not likely to happen again with the ever-growing fields.
The very next year he took 2nd place in the Main Event, showing that he wasn't a short-term fluke. In fact, Johnny Chan would go on to be one of the biggest winning poker players in the history of the WSOP. As of 2008, he has won 10 WSOP bracelets and earned over $6,700,000 in live tournament play. He's also a highly talented cash game player, regularly playing in the biggest cash games in the world. His total cash game winnings have likely eclipsed his total tournament winnings.
Away from the tables, Johnny Chan is a consultant for various casinos and casino game creators. He also owns a fast food franchise inside the Las Vegas Stratosphere hotel, writes strategy articles for various publications and sometimes appears on the TV show High Stakes Poker. If that wasn't enough, Johnny Chan has also written two poker books, owned an online poker site for a short time and mentored Jamie Gold before Gold won the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
Johnny Facts:
- Nicknamed "The Orient Express"
- Has won 10 WSOP bracelets
- Won two WSOP Championships in a row
- Made a cameo appearance in the 1998 movie Rounders
- Has earned nearly $7 million in live tournaments