Johnny chan - The Orient Express

With nine gold bracelets against his name, a distinction shared only with Phil Helmuth Jr. and Doyle Brunson, Johnny chan is one of the greatest poker players of all time. He became an instant legend when he won the world championship two years running - another distinction, and this time shared with only one other player, Doyle Brunson.

Born in Canton, China, Johnny’s family kept moved around while he was growing up. From Canton to Hong Kong to Phoenix, Arizona, and finally to Houston Texas where the family settled and ran a restaraunt. These days Johnny chan calls Las Vegas home.

Johnny enrolled the University of Houston for a major in hotel and restaurant management, with an eye on carrying on the family business. On weekends at the family restaurant, the employees would gather around the largest table and play Poker. They played Hold'em, Stud, Hi-Low Split, Baseball, Mexican Cross, games with deuces and one-eyed Queens wild – the game with all its variants was played from the wee hours of the morning till the sun came up.

As you can imagine, Johnny had consistent wins with his restaurant buddies, and this gave Johnny the confidence to fly to Las Vegas with scrimped-up funds and try his luck there. On one such trip, Johnny won $2,000 and later $30,000 within a span of three days. Though he later lost the entire money on a blackjack pit, and missed his plane back home that day, that was it. Johnny made up his mind to quit his studies and try his hand at playing poker for a living.

The earlier years were a little lean, as he learned the ropes, but Johnny’s persistence paid off in big ways: He won the $10,000 buy-in main event at the WSOP for $625,000 in 1987,turned around and won it again in 1988. Only one poker player ever accomplished back-to-back wins, and that player is Doyle Brunson. Johnny won other tournaments between his WSOP vistories, hitting the front page news by winning the main event at the Poker Hall of Fame Classic for $325,000. He came very close to winning the world championship a third year in a row by coming in 2nd place to Phil Helmuth Jr.

Johnny's incredible wins made him an "overnight" legend, and soon he got an offer from Hollywood to play himself in the Poker Movie “Rounders”. Not many in sports get to play a role as themselves in movies, so Johnny is one of those rarest of rare stars to have straddled two different worlds at the same time. Till date (2005), Johnny Chan has ten WSOP titles to his credit – a record that he shares only with Doyle Brunson. A father of six kids, Johnny dreams of owning a casino one day.