John Juanda

John Juanda, a professional poker player of Chinese Indonesia origins, plays online as JJ and Luckbox. Juanda’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) achievements include 5 bracelets and 55 cash finishes. Although he has not won any World Poker Tour (WPT) championship so far, he has made 17 WPT cashes. He has also made it to the final tables of European Poker Tour (EPT) and has 2 EPT cashes.

Early Life

Born on July 8th in the year 1971 in North Sumatra, Juanda currently resides in Los Angeles. He moved to the US in the early nineties, after which he studied at Oklahoma State University and then got an MBA at Seattle University. When he was in high school, he was very successful with the 200m to 500m races. Interesting, Juanda also worked as a Bible salesman and even won awards for doing it although he claims that he has always been a Buddhist.

Juanda spent most of his childhood with his grandparents and was influenced by his father’s habits of drinking and gambling. Although his father warned him time and again not to gamble, Juanda found himself playing marbles for real money when he was in grade school.

Juanda moved to the US to get a college education and learned poker during the flight. By the time he was in America, Juanda knew a game that would play a major role in his life, but little did he know that he would become a top-earning professional poker player.

Juanda’s Poker Achievements

Having won 4 WSOP titles and 1 World Poker Open Championship, Juanda was named Player of the Year by Card Player Magazine in 2001 and 2002. In 2004, Juanda emerged as the winner of the Inaugural Professional Poker Tour, which was held in the Connecticut-based Foxwoods Casino.

In November 2005, he took in a big prize at the Millions Consolation Tournament in Monte Carlo; he managed to come in at the sixth place for this event. Juanda also took the second place in the Invitational Live Poker Event held by FTP, collecting a total of $500k in winnings.

In 2006, he participated in the Crown Australian Poker Championship and beat professional poker players such as Mike Sexton, Jeff Lisandro, Tony Bloom, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, and Tony G., winning AU$1,000,000 in the process.

In 2008, Juanda won the WSOPE 2008 £10,000 NL Hold’em Main Event, adding $1,580,096 to his bankroll. Just a week later, he finished second at the London £1 Million Showdown, a NL Hold’em event part of the EPT, and won $598,770.

So far, Juanda has not won a WPT championship, but has made it to the WPT final tables six times.
By 2011, he has earned over $11,700,000, playing live poker events alone. Juanda was part of Team Full Tilt till the US federal government cracked down on the site on April 15 this year.

John Juanda Today

John Juanda is careful about his millions, partly because he still nurses dreams of becoming a doctor and serving poor people in third world countries. Currently, he is helping his younger sister get a college education in the US.