WSOP Profile Johnny Chan

01-18-07, LearnTexasHoldem:

Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan was born in China in 1957, and moved with his family to Arizona in 1968. Poker must have been in Johnny's blood from the start, because as soon as he turned 21 he moved to Las Vegas to try his hand at professional gambling.

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Chan may be the greatest World Series of Poker performer that ever lived. He has ten World Series of Poker bracelets, won the WSOP championship two times in a row, and very nearly won it three times in a row, coming in second to Phil Hellmuth Jr. in 1989. A player like Johnny Chan has hundreds of memorable World Series of Poker moments. But for legions of poker players, there is only one.

Chan Immortalized in Rounders

Of the many factors that contributed to the poker explosion of the 21st century, one came as early as 1998. In that year, a movie called Rounders chronicled a young man's quest to become a professional poker player. In one classic scene, Matt Damon's character Mike McDermott is approached by Petra, a player and poker room manager. She comes upon him watching a tape of the 1988 World Series of Poker over and over again. Petra recognizes the scene instantly as the final hand of the 1988 WSOP main event.

In the scene, Chan faced Erik Seidel for the title. Although hole card cameras were years from being invented, "sneak peek" camera shots revealed that Seidel was ahead before the flop, with Q7 to Chan's J9 suited. The flop was perfectly suited to Chan's hand, Q T 8, giving him "the nuts," an unbeatable hand, and giving Seidel top pair. Chan made a small bet and Seidel made a small raise. Knowing he had Seidel exactly where he wanted him, he flat called the raise, trying to appear that he was simply taking a shot at a missed flop. When a deuce came on the turn, Seidel, fooled by Chan's move and still holding top pair, moved all-in. Chan immediately stood up and pushed all his chips in, to the delight of the commentators and the crowd, as those watching could see he had an unbeatable hand and his second consecutive World Series of Poker crown.

Slow Played the Nut Straight

In reality, Erik Seidel is cast in an unfair light in the movie Rounders. Seidel is shown over and over again hopelessly pushing his chips in completely dead, as Petra coos about how brilliantly Chan has trapped his man. In reality, Seidel was running low on chips and it was perfectly reasonable for him to move in with top pair of queens and one card to come. In addition, though Johnny Chan is a brilliant player indeed, a great majority of strong players would have the sense to slow play a flopped nut straight. Finally, Seidel was relatively inexperienced at the time and still played excellently to finish second only to Johnny Chan.

All that being said, it is appropriate that Johnny Chan would be immortalized on film at the cusp of the poker explosion. Chan is an incredibly gifted player and a tremendous ambassador of poker. Although they may not appear at your local Cineplex, Johnny Chan is likely to have many more classic World Series of Poker moments.

Chan's WSOP Titles:

1985: $1,000 Limit Hold'em - $171,000
1987: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em World Championship - $625,000
1988: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em World Championship - $700,000
1994: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud - $135,600
1997: $5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw - $164,250
2000: $ 1,500 Pot Limit Omaha - $179,400
2002: $2,500 No Limit Hold'em - Gold Bracelet Match Play - $34,000
2003: $5,000 No Limit Hold'em - $224,400
2003: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha - $158,100
2005: $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em - $303,025