Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan Profile

Johnny Chan may be poker's most well known name. A true rags to riches story, Johnny Chan was born in Canton, China and moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. They later moved to Houston where his family owned some restaurants. He was expected to continue in the family business, but poker took him on a life detour. He started playing in the early 80s and hasn't looked back since. When he started playing poker, he also was an avid bowler. He used to hide some of his poker escapades by saying he was at the bowling alley.

He is a legend in the poker world for winning ten World Series of Poker gold bracelets, tied for the most along with Doyle Brunson. But more impressively is that two bracelets were from back to back Championship events in 1987 and 1988. Amazingly he almost won in 1989 too, but finished second to Phil Hellmuth. He is not only known by poker players, but also by moviegoers for playing himself as in Rounders, and is touted in the movie to be the best player in the world. The movie contained footage of Chan's victory against Erik Seidel in the 1988 World Series. Chan, nicknamed "The Orient Express", flopped a straight and got Erik to move all in with a pair of queens. Chan has an interesting ritual of keeping an orange in front of him during tournaments - Johnny claims the aroma combats the cigarette smoke.

Player Stats

The ten gold bracelets from the World Series of Poker are from the following:

1985: Winner WSOP Limit HoldEm
1987: Winner WSOP Main Event
1988: Winner WSOP Main Event
1994: Winner WSOP 7 Card Stud
1997: Winner WSOP Deuce to Seven Draw
2000: Winner Omaha Pot Limit
2002: Winner Gold Bracelet Match Play - The event was a series of heads up matches between previous bracelet winners and the final two players were Chan and Phil Hellmuth Jr. This time Chan was victorious.
2003: Winner WSOP Pot Limit HoldEm
2003: Winner WSOP No Limit HoldEm
2005: Winner WSOP Pot Limit Omaha

When I did the research on his wins, I was impressed with the variety of games he has won. This validates what many say, that he is one of the best all around poker players. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002.

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Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan Profile

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