John Juanda, also known as Johnson Juanda was born on July 8, 1971 in Medan, Indonesia. He is an American professional poker player who came to the United States in 1990 to attend Oklahoma State University and went on to earn an MBA from the Seattle University. He has three siblings and being the eldest child he has taken in his younger sister and is helping her to get a good education in the United States. He currently resides in Marina del Rey, California with the hope of finding bigger-stakes games.
His passion for gambling started at a very early age for John Juanda used to play marbles for money in grade school itself. In college, he started playing poker in the nearby casinos of Seattle during weekends to enhance his skills. The fact that John Juanda could not understand the English language did not stop him from either playing poker or selling bibles (he was an award winning bibles salesman) for he was a keen observer of people’s body language and facial expressions. Reading his opponents’ body language, a great talent in poker, worked as a big advantage for John Juanda.
In 2006, John Juanda played in many events and won a lot of money. For his brilliant performance in the No-Limit Hold’em Speed Poker Million Dollar Challenge at the Crown Australian Poker Championship in January, he walked away with $759,340 defeating Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Jason Gray, and Jeff Lisandro some of the best poker players in the world. He earned $14,783 at the Borgata Winter Open World Poker Tour (WPT) Event – Season 4 in February 2006. He cashed $12,525 and finished 31st at the Foxwoods Poker Classic WPT No Limit Hold’em Championship. In May 2006, John Juanda bagged $20,346 at the Mirage Poker Showdown WPT Event Season 5 No-Limit Hold’em Championship. At the WPT Main Event Season 5 Mandalay Bay Poker Championships No-Limit Hold’em, in June 2006, he made $20,160. In the 37th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), he won cash prizes in six events. In Event #3 – WSOP Pot-Limit Hold’em, he finished eighth and earned $37,606. In Event #8 – WSOP Omaha Hi/Lo, he won $4,268 and in Event #14 – WSOP No-Limit Hold’em, he won $11,589. He bagged $19, 063 at Event #30 - WSOP No-Limit Hold’em Short Handed and in the WSOP Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Event #35; he managed to win $4,302. On August 10, 2006, he played at the Bellagio Cup II Tournament Poker Pages Ranking Main Event – No-Limit Hold’em and took away $12,470. John Juanda finished eighth and walked away with a huge sum of $88,730 at the Legends of Poker WPT Event Season 5 No-Limit Hold’em Championship. He won an awesome $217,320 and finished fifth at the North American Poker Championships WPT Event Season 5 No-Limit Hold’em.
John Juanda has three WSOP Bracelets, three Best All Around Player awards, and made 15 final tables in 2004 to his credit which shows that he is a consistent player. His total live tournament winnings exceed $6,300,000, as of 2006.
Pot-Limit and No-Limit Hold’em are his favorite games and Erik Seidel, Allen Cunningham, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, and Chris Ferguson are some of his favorite players in poker.
Apart from playing poker John Juanda was very good in sports for in high school, he was popular for his 200 meter sprints and 5000 meter races.
John Juanda loves to read, watch movies, listen to John Lenon and Elton John, and explore new places in his spare time.
