John Juanda - Winner of 4 WSOP Bracelets
John Juanda has been awarded in money and recognition for his excellence in poker playing tournaments, having beaten many other top players.
John Juanda and His Successful Poker Playing Career
There is successful and then there is successful. John Juanda for sure comes in the second category. Not only has the man been given 3 Best All Around Player awards as well as earning 4 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, he has also won a staggering $8.5 million dollars in making his hobby a career. John began playing poker tournaments a while ago; he has been playing professional poker now for more than a decade. He started doing really well from 2001 though and that was the year he won the World Poker Open Championship. Then it seemed he just kept on winning. In 2002 he won his first WSOP bracelet and the year later won 2 WSOP events.
More Tournament Wins for John
He was runner up in the Card Player “Player of the Year” in 2002 but the year before he was named Tournament Champion of the Year. In all, John Juanda has 3 Best All Round Player awards. 2004 saw John making 15 Final Tables. The following year he came 5th in the 2005 Five Star World Poker Classic as well as the 2005 National Heads Up Poker Championship. He made $500,000 when he won the Monte Carlo Millions Consolation Tournament and came in 6th place at the Main Event. The guy just simply keeps on winning poker tournaments. 2006 was a great year for John Juanda as not only did he win the Aussie Millions Speed Poker Million Dollar Challenge, but he had to beat some pretty big names to do so (including Phil Ivey and Jason Gray). He took him some nice money (a million Australian dollars) which is always a great bonus, but for professional poker players like John Juanda it’s the reputation and the guys you knock out that gives you just as much of a lift. Things just kept getting better for John’s poker tournaments and in 2008 he just really hit the jackpot. He won the WSOP European Series Main Event Championship (London) which was where he got his 4th bracelet, and broke the record, setting a new one for 19 hours and 10 minutes for length of games. He also increased the number of hands record to 484!
A Bit about John Juanda as an Individual
John Juanda was actually given the name Johnson John Juanda in 1971 in Medan, Indonesia. While he was raised in Indonesia, he is ethnically Chinese. He arrived in America in 1990 and today lives in Los Angeles. He studied at the Oklahoma State University and got his MBA from Seattle University. John Juanda also has a great talent for track running.