The legend

Orient Express Johnny moved to the USA with his family in 1968. He dropped out of the university at the age of 21 and became a professional gambler. Mr. Chan is wildly known as one of the greatest players in WSOP history, which was confirmed in 2002 when he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. He’s currently second on the Bracelet list (10), together with Doyle Brunson, but after Phil Hellmuth (11). Johnny is also the last player to win back-to-back WSOP Main Events, which would probably last forever regarding connoisseurs. He’s a very expressive character with wild, unusual haircuts and a diamond ratlesnake ring. He’s known to bring a ‘lucky’ orange to the table and he neither smokes or drinks alcohol. For me, Johnny Chan is the best tournament player on the planet. He won Poker Superstars II and finished 2th at the first one. He holds the record for most NBC’s Poker After Dark wins (4). His first major victory was at Bob Stupak’s 1981 American Cup where he defeated all other players at the final table in less than an hour and so gaining his nickname. Mr. Chan made a famous cameo appearance in the best poker movie of all time ‘Rounders ‘. More famous activities from him are : he owns a fast-food franchise, wrote for Card Player Magazine and Trader Monthly, collaborated on 2 instructional poker books and launched his own online poker room, Chan Poker Online.com, that was closed a year after release. Besides tournaments, Orient Express is a very good high stakes cash game player too, which he proved in the first season of GSN’s High Stakes Poker.

ID & career

johnny_chan_poker_image.jpg> born in 1957, Guangzhou (CHI)

> married, have 6 children and 6 houses.

> resides now in Cerritos, California (USA).

> Nickname : ‘ Orient(al) Express ‘

> two time WSOP Main Event World Champion in 1987 and 1988.

> won 8 other Bracelets !! (’85 Limit Hold’em/ ‘94 7 Card Stud/ ‘97 2-7 Draw/ ‘00 PLO/ ‘02 NL Hold’em/ ‘03 NL Hold’em and PLO / ‘05 PL Hold’em)

> has Live Tournament Winnings of over $ 8,500,000 (until 2009)