Johnny Chan was born in Guangzhou, China in 1957. He moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1968 and then on to Houston, Texas in 1973. He family opened a successful restaurant and after high school Johnny went on to the University of Houston to earn a degree in hotel and restaurant management. By this time Johnny Chan was already in love with poker so when he turned 21 in 1978 he dropped out and took his life savings to Las Vegas.

He started off playing at the middle stakes poker games at various Vegas Casinos. He soon worked his way up to the high stakes tables and became a well respected poker player. Johnny was one of the first Asians to enter the high stakes poker scene which he believes gave him a big advantage. In 1985 he won his 1st World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,000 fixed limit Texas Hold'em event. In 1987 Johnny won $625,000 by winning the $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold'em main event. He was the top poker player in the world at this time, life couldn't be better but it got a lot better in 1988 when he did it again. Johnny took home another $700,000 by winning the main event. He is the last player to win the main event two years in a row. He came very close to winning a 3rd time in 89 but had to settle for 2nd place with Phil Hellmuth taking the title.

In 1994 Chan won his 4th WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 7 Card Stud tournament. He was back in 1997 to win yet another bracelet in the Triple Draw event which put another $164,000 in his pocket. In 2000 he won the L.A. Poker Classic worth nearly $100,000. Johnny also won a bracelets each year in 2000 and 2002 bringing the total up to seven. Then in 2003 he won two major events at the WSOP for a combined win of over $380,000. His 10th and last WSOP bracelet win came in 2005 when he finished 1st in the $2,500 pot limit Hold'em tournament, worth over $300,000.

These are all just Johnny's first place finishes. He has won over a million dollars for finishing in the money at countless tournaments. Johnny has won a life time total of over $6,000,000 from his tournament play. In 2005 he published "Play Poker Like Johnny Chan", a detailed book covering winning strategies for many different games. Then in late 2006 he came out with "Million Dollar Hold'em: Winning Big in Limit Cash Games", the bible of fixed limit Texas Hold'em tactics.

What's He Like?

Johnny Chan is a nice outgoing player on and off the table. He doesn't tend to show a lot of emotion at the table which is very uncommon in high stakes poker.

What's he doing now?

Johnny recently launched his own poker room, Chan Poker. He still competes in many tournaments and on occasion can be found at the high stakes cash games in Vegas. Those years in college are finally paying off as he has opened his own fast food restaurant in the Las Vegas Stratosphere Hotel.

Major Wins

WSOP