Johnny Chan Rides The Orient Express Into Poker History

It’s easy to forget that poker wasn’t always the media cash-cow that it’s became over the last decade, especially for younger players who first caught the bug by watching the world’s greatest on television.  While it’s now possible to quickly gain worldwide recognition by catching a lucky river card, players used to grind away for years without much recognition.  An elite handful of card players managed to climb the ladder and become respected superstars without the lights and magic of Hollywood and Jonny Chan stands in the front of that crowd.

Johnny spent his youngest years in China, living in Canton until he was six when his family moved to Hong Kong.  He was ten when they made the move to America, landing in Phoenix for a time and finally settling down in Houston to open a restaurant. 

Being ten years old can be challenging enough without having to deal with the cultural shift of moving around the world but Johnny did his best to get into the swing of American life.  The entire family was involved in the restaurant operation, which took a fair amount of time from them all, and Johnny spent a lot of his free time at a local bowling alley.

Bowling wasn’t the only activity taking place around those Houston lanes and, in a back room, Johnny discovered a poker game.  Bowling was fun, poker was better and Johnny was hooked.  Johnny started winning regularly at the nickel-and-dime bowling alley stakes and soon graduated to a more lucrative game at the family restaurant.

However, the group soon asked Jonny to stop coming to the games because they grew tired of losing all the time.  Soon after that, Johnny did what any 16 year old poker junkie would do: he went to Las Vegas.

A legal poker game is subject to the same age restriction as other gambling activities but Johnny managed to get on a table with $500 and turn it into $20,000 in one night.  As you can imagine, Johnny was back the next night to see how much he could that $20,000 bankroll into. 

The answer was zero, zilch, nada as Johnny was kind enough to redistribute his new wealth to the other players.  While most people can’t imagine winning twenty grand one night and losing it the next, Johnny made that sort of thing a habit early on.

The fact that he could regularly win large amount of cash at the table was obviously a motivation to keep playing.  It proved he was skilled enough to win.  If he could just fix the small problem of losing it all back over the next few days, he could probably make a decent living.

His family wasn’t thrilled with the professional poker player concept, and it’s easy to imagine why as they worked hard all day to earn a living from the restaurant.  Poker seems like easy money and Johnny’s family obviously understood and respected working hard to earn a living.  Accordingly, Johnny did attend college in Texas and studied restaurant and hotel management in preparation to take over the family business at some point.

Most players know, however, that once the poker bug bites a person it’s awfully hard to get it out of your system.  At the age of 21, Johnny quit school and moved to Las Vegas to enjoy the brand new experience of sitting down legally at a poker table in the city built on chips and cards.  After all, Johnny had been regularly winning when he was sneaking onto the table so that part was covered; he just had to hang onto the money.

The poker crowd of Vegas welcomed Johnny with open arms that first year.  After all, even the grumpiest player will warm up and be nice if the new guy looks like easy money.  His Asian ethnicity contributed to this perception because there weren’t a lot of Asian gamblers in Vegas at the time and even less successful ones.

It would be nice to write that Johnny took advantage of the prejudice against him, but it wouldn’t be true. Johnny routinely lived up to the “easy money” expectation when he sat down and began giving chips away like he was allergic to them. 

Needless to say, the initial welcoming attitude grew and players were eager to sit with him because he played poker like a gambler and not like a poker player: he’d be looking for a miracle card and, when it didn’t appear, he’d chase the losses all over the table until he sat behind nothing but empty felt.  Johnny become known for having a short temper and not having the foggiest idea when it was time to get off the table.

To continue working as a professional gambler, Johnny had to take up various side jobs.  He worked as a chef, dealer and floor manager.  These gigs gave him a steady paycheck which he could turn around and give away to whichever players were lucky enough to be sitting at a table with him.  Johnny had no doubt that he was going to be a great poker player and he was dead-set on continuing his journey, even if he had to pay for it.

Most folks would find this concept a bit strange.  A job is supposed to pay you, after all, so if you need side jobs simply so you have enough money to pay for your main job something seems off.  Of course, these same folks don’t give a second thought to dumping tens-of-thousands of dollars on a college education which is one way of looking at Johnny’s early professional life.

While he may not have been looking at his losses like a tuition, Johnny was observing and learning a great deal around the green-topped classes in poker rooms.  Aside from learning the game, strategy and opponent-study, Johnny also learned about the ethnic prejudice other players held.  He could see that he was wildly underestimated time-after-time and people would pay to see his hand more often than they did with anyone else.

In many situations being immediately judged as inferior because of your race creates justified feelings of anger and frustration.  In poker, it creates a powerful edge if the player being judged can take advantage of it.  Johnny had that advantage and it was even stronger because of the time he’d spent paying to reinforce the perception of him as a weak player.

In 1982, Johnny made some major lifestyle changes, earned his poker nickname and started using the prejudice to his advantage.  Smoking, which he did to the tune of four-packs-a-day, was gone and was replaced with healthier eating and exercise.  A similar change, at least equally as healthy, was made to his poker playing as wild losing streaks were out and replaced with taking other players chips.  Lots of other players chips.

Johnny entered The America’s Cup of Poker in Vegas that year and was dubbed “The Orient Express,” by Bob Stupak.  This was after Johnny spent 30 minutes knocking out 13 of 16 players…that translates into approximately one new loser every two-and-a-half minutes courtesy of The Orient Express.  Not surprisingly, Johnny also went on to win the tournament.

Winning was better than losing and Johnny kept going.  Since that first tournament win, Johnny has won countless smaller tournaments and 10 World Series of Poker bracelets.  His double-digit bracelet collection earns him a spot in a highly-elite club with just two other members: only Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth have won 10 bracelets and nobody has won more.

Johnny has another unique claim-to-fame in the WSOP, because he won two of his bracelets back to back in 1987 and 1988.  He got painfully close to three in a row in 1989, but lost in the final head-to-head moments of competition against Phil Hellmuth, who was relatively unknown at the time.

13 years later, a $2,500 no limit tournament at the WSOP provided a rematch of sorts.  It may not have been the main event, but it was the same game and it once again came down to Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth.  The biggest difference between the two matches was the outcome, as Johnny won his 7^th bracelet by knocking Phil off the table.

Johnny Chan has undeniably earned his reputation as masterful poker player and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002.  Among his other accomplishments, Johnny is also responsible for the…strategy…of bringing lucky fruit to the table. 

Because Johnny is known for bringing an orange to his matches, superstitious players worldwide began bringing their own fruity luck charms.  In reality, Johnny’s orange served as an natural air freshener, replacing the stale smoke smell that was once common in poker rooms with a more pleasing fruity aroma.

Hollywood provided him with their own version of high honors in the movie Rounders which introduced The Orient Express to the world outside of poker.  Johnny makes a cameo appearance in the movie, but it was footage recorded in the 1988 that provided outsiders with an idea of his prowess.