Johnny Chan was born in China and immigrated to the United States via Hong Kong.  Upon their arrival in the U.S., his parents moved to Arizona and eventually settled in Texas, where Johnny worked in his family’s restaurant business for many years.  Chan occasionally took trips

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Chan’s first few years as a pro were difficult.  He went through huge bankroll swings and struggled financially.  He was forced to take several odd jobs at different times just to pay his rent and other bills because of the numerous losing sessions at the tables.  The hardest thing for a young poker player is trying to adjust to miserable losing streaks.  Times are always easy when you are winning, but the real pros gut out the dark times.  Despite being nearly broke, Chan kept on playing and took every means possible to improve his game.  His skills steadily improved and he made fewer mistakes, developing the signature control and discipline which still make him successful today.

In May of 1985, Johnny Chan won his first World Series of Poker bracelet at Binion’s Horseshoe in a $1,000 Limit Holdem event.  Two years later, he’d won his first WSOP Main Event Championship when he beat Frank Henderson heads up to take home over $625,000, which at the time was the largest prize ever awarded in a poker tournament.  Chan’s final table included some of the toughest players around: Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer, Bob Ciaffone, Mickey Applebaum, and Jack Keller.

In 1988, Chan won his second main event title for back-to-back victories.  He faced a tough final table including Erik Seidel, Costa Rica’s greatest player of all time in Humberto Brenes, T.J. Cloutier, and Jim Betchel.  He won $700,000 after he beat Erik Seidel heads up for the victory.  That final hand, in which Chan flopped the nut straight and slow-played it all the way to the river was immortalized in the 1998 film Rounders, where the main character Michael McDermott (played by Matt Damon) watches the final hand over and over.  Seidel made a move at the pot on Fifth Street and Chan trapped him for all his chips, taking down his second straight world championship.  That feat may never be broken.  It recalls Joe DiMaggio’s infamous 56-game hitting streak.  Every year, a new poker player attempts to win consecutive championships, but no one will ever top Chan’s deceptive and cagey performance.  Greg Raymer came very close in 2005 when he made the final three tables after surviving over 5,600 players, but in my estimation, Chan’s back-to-back main event victories

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Of course Chan did come extremely close to winning three world championships in a row.  A 24-year-old Phil Hellmuth stopped Chan in 1989 from winning his third straight main event.  Again, it was a heated battle with Chan facing a new young gun.  The year before it was New York City’s Erik Seidel.  In 1989 it was Phil Hellmuth from Madison, Wisconsin.  Unfortunately, that happened to be Phil Hellmuth’s day and Chan ended up taking second place for a $302,000 payday.  Chan earned his fourth bracelet in 1994 when he chalked up a victory in the $1,500 Seven-card Stud.  In 1997, he picked up another bracelet for the $5,000 No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw where he beat out Lyle Berman and Barry Greenstein.  In 2000, he won bracelet number six when was victorious over Josh Arieh in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament.  In 2002, Chan won the $2,500 NL event, this time besting ‘89 world champion Phil Hellmuth.

At the 2003 WSOP, Chan added two more bracelets to his growing collection.  His eighth came in the $5,000 NLHE after surviving a final table that included Surrinder Sunar, Huck Seed, Amir Vahedi, David Singer, and Layne Flack.  Chan won number nine in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha when he beat out another table of greats including Robert Williamson III, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, and Huck Seed.

In 2005, Johnny Chan made history when he became the first player to ever win 10 World Series of Poker bracelets.  In an epic moment, he beat Phil "The Unabomber" Laak heads up, surviving a field of 425 players and a final table that featured Jerri Thomas and Humberto Brenes.  Chan’s winning hand was Q-Q against Laak’s K-J.  Earlier in the tournament he managed to crack pocket Aces with a pair of Queens when he was all in and drawing dead to only two outs.  Even the great ones have to get lucky once in a while.

Over the course of his career, Johnny Chan has cashed in 27 various WSOP events, making 22 final tables.  That’s an astounding percentage.  He also has 5 second-place finishes to his credit.  Chan admits that if he knew then that winning bracelets was so important, he would have played in more events over the years.  Tournaments can be a time-consuming endeavor for cash game players of Chan’s stature.  Whereas they can win a million in one cash session, most tournaments are multi-day affairs where even great players come up empty most of the time.

Johnny Chan is also a regular in the "Big Game" in Las Vegas, facing some of the best players of all time.  Over the years the venue has rotated among different casinos and is currently held at the Bellagio in Bobby’s Room, named after legendary poker player and Bellagio CEO Bobby Baldwin.  Bobby’s Room is a private glass-encased room that is large enough to hold three poker tables and a couch.  On the walls are blown-up photographs of some of the players in this game.  The regular lineup is a veritable Who’s Who of poker legends, including Doyle Brunson, Lyle Berman, Barry Greenstein, Chau Giang, Minh Ly, Phil Ivey, and Jen Harman.  Other top pros who play in the game from time to time include Sammy Farha, Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Ted Forrest, and David Grey.  The level of competition that Chan faces on a nightly basis ranks among the best ever assembled.  Success in The Big Game equals competence, according to Barry Greenstein.  If you can routinely beat the best, then you are the best.  That’s Johnny Chan.