Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan is possibly the best known poker player in the world. Immortalised in film as well as in the poker records, Chan’s ten World Series of Poker bracelets include back-to-back WSOP Championship event wins in 1987 & 1988, the second of which is featured in the movie Rounders.

In 1989 Johnny Chan almost became the first player ever to win three back-to-back titles, in the end finishing an agonising second to Phil Hellmuth. Had he won Chan would have received an NBA Championship ring from the owner of the LA Lakers Jerry Buss, but it wasn’t to be.

Known for keeping a ‘lucky’ orange in front of his cards (more to intimidate opponents than for any other reason) Chan was rightly inducted into the poker hall of fame in 2002, ensuring his place in pokers history books.

EARLY DAYS

Johnny Chan was born in Canton, China, in the late 1950’s, but moved with his family in 1962 to Hong Kong, where they spent four years of their time in America, before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, and then finally, in 1973, to Houston, Texas.

When Chan first arrived in America he couldn’t speak a word of English, and found settling in difficult. His father owned a restaurant in Houston, where Chan worked as a kid, sometimes playing chess, poker and pool in games nearby. Originally planning to continue in the family business, Chan’s life changed for good when he went on a junket to Las Vegas.

Later, aged 21, he dropped out of the University of Houston and moved to Las Vegas to become a professional gambler.

Despite Chan’s ultimately phenomenal success he says that his first year as a professional player was the “worst experience” of his life. Initially Chan found the circuit rather accommodating, a fact he puts down to his ethnicity: “the pros didn’t expect an Asian player to be any good. They underestimated me and gave me more than I deserved. They were throwing money at me.”

The problem was that Chan didn’t know how to quit, and when he lost his head he usually lost his bankroll. According to Brunson: “Chan was just a hot-headed kid with some talent,” a kid that would often have to go and find a job after chasing his losses too hard. Eventually, after countless chefs jobs and dealers jobs Chan learnt his lesson: walk away when it’s not your night. It was a valuable lesson, and helped Chan to become the poker player he is today.

WSOP

Chan’s feat in winning back-to-back WSOP titles in 1987 & 1988, followed by a second place finish in 1989 has to rank as the greatest WSOP record of all time. Back-to-back wins had been done before, by three players in fact – Moss, Brunson, and Ungar – but none came close to winning a third in a row. Add to that the fact that WSOP championship fields were considerably smaller when the feat was last achieved by Ungar six years earlier, and Chan’s achievement seems all the more remarkable.

The Orient Express ranks his first victory, when he annihilated a field of 152 players, as his finest moment in poker, though many people will not agree with him. In 1988 Chan not only beat a bigger field of players, but he also came back from losing a $1.2 million pot – at the time the largest recorded pot in WSOP history. Chan had to battle back from $800,000 deficits twice during the event to finally beat Eric Seidel to the title. The final hand of that win featured in the seminal poker movie Rounders, when Chan, sitting on a flopped straight, induced Seidel to bet into him with just a pair of queens.

Chan’s success in the WSOP is not restricted to the main event. Until recently, when WSOP Championship wins have paid in excess of $4 million dollars, Chan led the all-time money-list for the WSOP, with $3,744,331. He holds the record for the most bracelets along with Doyle Brunson, he is seventh in the all-time list for final table appearances with 25, and he has cashed in 29 events – all-in-all an incredible record.

And one last thing – Chan also won the WSOP No-Limit Hold’em Gold Bracelet Match Play, a knock-out heads-up battle featuring 28 of the WSOP’s greatest bracelet winners. He beat Hellmuth in the final.

ON THE SIDE

Despite the phenomenal amount of money Chan has won at the WSOP, the Orient Express collects even more money from high stakes side games. Playing alongside Brunson and Chip Reese, the two players Chan respects more than any others, he plays in the biggest cash games in the world winning and (occasionally) losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single evening.

It is at this level that Chan claims to be at his best, saying that the big money games are where he feels most comfortable and where his skills are best utilised. Once, some years ago, Chan and several other players were invited by a dying French billionaire to Paris for a game. Brunson, who was also at that game, recalls Chan winning over a $1 million. Chan, jokingly, recalls Brunson losing almost as much.

Chan is also a keen bowler (ten-pin) where he is partial to a gigantic wager. A self-confessed big spender, he says his hunger for cash is insatiable: “you can never have enough of it.” With countless $5000 plus suits, a $15,000 watch, a million-dollar country estate and a selection of expensive cars he doubtless needs these cash games to pay for the lifestyle. A $75,000 win, he claims, wouldn’t cover his monthly outgoings.

PERSONAL

Johnny Chan is a confident poker player; confidence, some say, that borders on arrogance. But that is what is needed at the poker table – there is no room for self-doubt when bluffing at a half-million dollar pot.

Add confidence to a penchant for bling and you might not expect the result to be particularly palatable, but in Johnny Chan’s case, you would be wrong. Chan is a much liked and highly respected figure, both in and out of the poker circuit.

A non-smoking tee-totaller, Chan is also a dedicated family man, who manages to find plenty of time away from the tables to spend with his wife and children.

There is one passion of Johnny Chan’s that, amazingly, has yet to be fulfilled. While Chan has got most things he has wanted over the years, deep down he always wanted to be a film star! Although he came close enough, with his cameo role in Rounders, Chan is yet to be offered the starring role in a Hollywood blockbuster he so craves. Time will tell if he ever does…

Year	Tournament	Prize (US$)
1985	Limit Hold'em	$171,000
1987	Championship Event	$625,000
1988	Championship Event	$700,000
1994	Seven-Card Stud	$135,600
1997	Deuce to Seven Draw	$164,250
2000	Pot Limit Omaha	$178,800
2002	Match Play Prize	$37,000
2003	Pot Limit Omaha	$158,100
2003	No Limit Hold'em	$224,400
2005	Pot Limit Hold'em	$303,025
Total		$2,697,175