Poker Players - Johnny Chan
July 17th, 2009 / Posted by Suicidalsam in General, Online Poker, Poker, Poker Players
Johnny Chan is a professional poker player of Chinese origin. He was born in China in 1957 but he currently stays in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In his early years, Johnny Chan moved with his family in 1962 to Hong Kong from Guangzhou. He then shifted to Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 and later on to Houston, Texas in 1973. His family started a restaurant business in Houston. Chan was almost going to continue in his family business but at the age of sixteen years he just visited a junket by chance in Las Vegas. At the age of 21 years, Chan dropped out of his university where he was doing his majors in hotel management. He then shifted to Las Vegas to become a full time professional gambler.
Johnny Chan got success early in poker than US players as the US players were not accustomed to playing opposite Asian players. He became famous in the late 1980s winning the WSOP event in 1987 and 1988. He also appeared in a video where he does a cameo appearance. He was about to win his third consecutive title but he landed in the second spot behind Phil Hellmuth. He is the last player in poker to win back to back WSOP events, a feat applauded by many poker players.
Another poker player called Jerry Buss who is also the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers team promised Chan an entry in the NBA championship ring if he could win 3 WSOP titles in a row. Chan always keeps an orange on the table as a good luck charm when he is playing. Seeing him, other players also started bringing fruits as a good luck charm. However Chan stuck to an orange because of its sweet smell and he didn’t like the smoke pouring out of the cigarettes from other players. Chan smoked in the past but he eventually gave up. He does not drink alcohol.
In the year 2005, Johnny Chan became the first player to win ten World Series Poker titles. He last defeated Phil Laak in a Texas hold’em event to win the tenth title. He is at present tied with another poker player called Doyle Brunson for the second place of having ten World Series bracelets and both of them are just one short of Phil Hellmuth’s tally of eleven. Chan was introduced in the Poker Hall of Fame in the year 2002. In 2008, Chan earned a total of $32,166 in the main event.
Johnny Chan also participated in the $400,000 Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament in 2005. he was placed in the second position just behind Gus Hansen. He finished with earnings of $3,200,000 in that tournament. Chan also competed in the Poker Superstars II tournament in the same year. He made it to the finals after defeating 22 of the best players. He won about $400,000 as prize money. In the Poker superstars III event, Chan reached till the semi finals and was defeated in three games by Todd Brunson.
Related Posts
This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 8:14 pm and is filed under General, Online Poker, Poker, Poker Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
