John Phan is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player born on October 10, 1974 in Da Nang, Vietnam and currently resides in Long Beach, California.
John Phan, who has the nickname “Razor”, was associated with poker since he was 16. He played the game for fun and soon developed a liking towards it. Initially, he played low limits like $2/$4 and $3/$6 at a small card room where his uncle was working. What started as fun began to change and John Phan eventually decided to become a poker professional because of the huge amount of money involved. Money alone didn’t drive him towards making a career out of poker, but also the challenge that lied within. According to John Phan, poker is a “game of mind”, where one can play the player or the game differently in almost any situation. He also believes that a poker player has to play with the best in the business and develop the game by learning from them.
John Phan has been a regular in the poker world since the late 1990s and has earned a number of tournament cashes, big and small. But it was only on August 2, 2003, that John Phan had his first major success when he emerged as the winner in the Limit Hold’em event at the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 2. That day he crossed the $50,000 mark in winnings at a single tournament for the first time, by bagging $67,500 in cash. The year 2004 was an eventful one for John Phan, as he had a number of victories and final-table finishes. He started off the season by emerging victorious in two events of the 5th Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open –WPT Season 2 held in January. The first one was in the No-Limit Hold’em event and the second was in the Pot-Limit Hold’em event, both increasing his bankroll by $238,659. The same month he won close to hundred thousand dollars for his second-place finish at the LA Poker Classic – WPT Season 2 in the No-Limit Hold’em event. Midway through 2004, John Phan again finished first in the Festa al Lago ll and took home $189,900 in the No-Limit Hold’em event. He had another first-place finish at the Legends of Poker - WPT Season 3 in the No-Limit Hold'em event in August 2004.
John Pahn started off 2005 with an $86,374 worth third-place finish at the 6th Jack Binion World Poker Open/WPT Season 3 in the No-Limit Hold’em event. John Phan went on to bag another $300,578 by winning the LA Poker Classic on February 16, 2005. He followed it up with another impressive cashing of more than half a million dollars at the Five-Star World Poker Classic - WPT Championship Season 3 by finishing fourth. He also secured the first place at the Harrah's Lake Tahoe Poker Tournament in the WSOP Circuit Pot-Limit Hold'em event in May 2005. July 2005 saw him clinch back-to-back No-Limit Hold’em events in the Ultimate Poker Challenge.
In 2006, John Phan had three impressive runner-up finishes apart from other cashes, and this totaled to $390,593. One of these second-place finishes came at the 37th World Series of Poker in the No-Limit Hold’em event held on July 10, 2006.
John Phan began the year 2007 with a bang by winning the Limit Hold'em event at the World Poker Open / WPT Event - Season 5. On June 11, 2007, at the 38th Annual World Series of Poker, he secured the second place in the No-Limit Hold’em event and went on to earn $330,846. The 39th Annual World Series of Poker, held on June 2008, saw him coming first in the No-Limit Hold’em and Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw events. These victories gave him the first two bracelets of his poker career and $586,700 in cash.
Recent records show that John Phan has 15 first-place finishes, 94 cashes, 2 WSOP bracelets and a total cash of $4,172,066 from tournament winnings.
