Player Profile: Johnny Chan

Johnny Chan is a professional poker player that was born in China in 1957. Right now he is living in the city of gambling: Las Vegas.

Back in 1962, he moved with his family in Hong Kong and after that in Arizona, and later on in Houston, Texas. That is the city where his family is currently running some restaurants. His story is very interesting, and in the same time very similar to the one of many other professional poker players out there. He went for the first time in Las Vegas when he was only 16 years old, and fell in love with the game of poker. Later on when he was only 21 years old he quit school and moved on to be a professional poker player. The other opportunity that he had was to be part of the family restaurant business.

Johnny Chan started to be more and more popular in the 80s. The moment he managed to win for two consecutive years the World Series of Poker, in 1987 and 1988.

The biggest prize ever won at a live poker tournament was the 1988 WSOP, when Johnny Chan took home more than $700,000.

Johnny Chan can be considered to be a very open minded professional poker player. Since he is also running a fast food franchise in Las Vegas, he used to write in the past for the famous poker magazine Card Player, and he is currently also a consultant for many casinos and game makers in Las Vegas. His dream is to open his own casino.