Johnny Chan

Professional poker player Johnny Chan was born in 1957 in Guangzhou, China. He and his family moved to Hong Kong from Guangzhou in 1962 before moving to Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 and Houston, Texas in 1973. Chan’s family owned their own restaurants and Chan grew up with the intention of working in the family business.

Later in life, while studying hotel and restaurant management at the University of Houston, he decided to move to Las Vegas, inspired by the trip he took aged 16, to pursue his dream of becoming a professional gambler. To this day, Chan remains a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Chan first found fame as a professional poker player late in the 1980s. He won the championship events of both the 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Chan failed to win a third consecutive WSOP title, coming 2nd to Phil Hellmuth in the 1989 WSOP.

He remains in possession of the title of the last player to succeed in winning two WSOP Main Events back-to-back and many believe that, due to the large number of competitors, he will continue to hold this title for many years to come.

In 2002, Chan experienced the honour of having his name added to the Poker Hall of Fame. This served as a celebration of all his achievements in poker. By 2005, he achieved the feat of first player to win ten WSOP titles. He is in joint 2nd place position with Doyle Brunson for holding ten WSOP bracelets. Chan and Brunson are only one WSOP bracelet behind Phil Hellmuth.

Chan finished in 2nd place to Gus Hansen at the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament in early 2005. He later went on to win Poker Superstars II in the summer of that same year however; he failed to keep his crown, reaching only the semi-finals in Poker Superstars III.

In 2008, Chan was lucky enough to cash in the WSOP Main Event. This was the first time he had done so since 1992. Chan also cashed in the WSOP Main Event in 2010. He came in 156th place, winning $57,102. Chan has achieved 43 WSOP cashes, accounting for $4,298,550 of his total tournament earnings.

Chan has featured on NBC’s Poker After Dark, winning four times out of the six appearances on the show. He also made an appearance on High Stakes Poker. Chan launched his own online poker room, named ChanPokerOnline.com in 2007. This proved to be a short-lived venture, with the poker room closing up in August 2008.

Chan is the owner of a Vegas-based fast-food franchise, located within the Stratosphere Hotel. He has also found work as a consultant for numerous game makers and casinos. Chan has stated that he wishes to open his own casino in the future.

In 2005, Chan co-authored an instructional book entitled Play Poker like Johnny Chan. The follow-up book, entitled Million Dollar Hold’em: Winning Big in Limit Cash Games, saw its release in winter 2006. Chan has previously written for the magazine Card Player and was a regular columnist for the magazine Trader Monthly. Chan starred as himself in the movie Poker Kong in 2009. This was not his first cinematic appearance however, as he also played himself in the 1998 movie, Rounders.

Chan earned the nickname, “the Orient Express”, after defeating nine players in a row in little under one hour at Bob Stupak’s 1981 American Cup poker tournament. Chan is yet to reach the World Poker Tour (WPT) final table, despite many attempts to do so.