JOHNNY CHAN

”I’m the best player in the Asian community. They’re all dreaming they’re going to be the Orient Express II”
Johnny Chan

With ten gold bracelets Johnny Chan – known as The Orient Express – is tied with Doyle Brunson. And, as Brunson, Chan has also won the World Championships two times in a row, 1987 and 1988. He almost won three in a row, but lost to Phil Hellmuth in 1989 when he went all in with A-7. A hand he now thinks he “overplayed”. Chan became famous when actual clips from his 1988 win were shown in the movie “Rounders”.

Chan has impressed the poker community winning his bracelets in so many different types of poker. He has won four times in No Limit Hold’em, two times in Pot Limit Omaha, and one time each playing Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Hold’em, Seven Card Stud and Deuce to Seven Draw.

Chan is known for always bringing oranges to the table when he plays. Believed to be a lucky charm, Chan has later explained it with the fact that he simply likes their smell, and especially so in smoky poker rooms.

Asked by Bluff Magazine about his greatest bluff ever, he answered: “There was $850,000 in the pot and four spades out there. This guy had a King High Flush and I had nothing. I just knew he didn't have the A, so I put all my chips in the pot and he had to lay it down.”

That is for sure a nice way to make a living.

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