Professional poker player Johnson “John” Juanda was born in Indonesia but is ethnically Chinese. Living in the United States since 1990, Juanda is now based in Los Angeles. After receiving his MBA from Seattle University and a stint as a door-to-door Bible salesman, the poker pro discovered poker and never looked back. This career change turned out to be a very lucrative one.
In both 2001 and 2002, John Juanda was named Cardplayer Magazine’s tournament Player of the Year, winning four World Series of Poker titles and a World Poker Tour Open Championship title. In November 2004, the poker pro won the inaugural Professional Poker Tour event at Foxwoods Casino.
The next year Juanda earned nearly $500,000 in Monte Carlo, Monaco after winning the Monte Carlo Millions Consolation tournament, finishing sixth in the Main Event. He also finished second at the FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo. In January 2006, Juanda defeated a field that included Mike Sexton, Barry Greenstein, Tony G and Phil Ivey to win the $1 million first prize in the Crown Australian Poker Championship speed poker event. He also won the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe No-Limit Holdem Main Event and, a little over a week later, finished runner-up to Jason Mercier at the European Poker Tour’s London £1 million Showdown.
Although John Juanda has made six World Poker Tour final tables, he has never captured a WPT title. The professional poker player has finished second, third, fourth, fifth two times and sixth. In other WPT tournaments he finished seventh and eighth, just missing a chance at the final table.
As of 2009, Juanda’s total live tournament winnings exceed $9,600,000 with his 49 cashes at the World Series of Poker account for $3,365,832 of this amount, putting him in ninth for all time WSOP cashes. He is a member of Team Full Tilt at FullTiltPoker.Net.
