John Juanda

• Facebook:John-Juanda-Poker-Pro
• Twitter: @LuckBoxJuanda
• Website: www.johnjuanda.com
• Birthdate: 8th July 1971
• Birthplace: Medan, Indonesia
• Residence: California
• WSOP Bracelets: 5
• Biggest Win: $1,645,753
• Total Winnings: $15,059,000
• Sponsored by: Ex Full Tilt Poker

John Juanda was born and raised in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, the eldest of four children. Along with his brothers and sisters, he was raised by his grandparents, both sets, as his parents, Hadi and Kurniaty, had just started a business enterprise in a nearby town. Everyone seemed happy with the arrangement and the Juanda children realized that their parents were trying to make a better life for them.

Their parents regularly visited and John was able to witness his father’s gambling and drinking habits and, if seeing his losing ways were not enough, he was actively discouraged from gambling by all his elders, father included. However, John was a bit of a rebel at a young age and managed to get thrown out of a couple of schools and even got involved in betting on playground marble games! Despite this, he was a gifted student and talented runner, favoring 200 meter and 5000 meter races.

When John was 17 his parents, having built a successful business called Fortune 500, used some of their money to send him to the United States to further his education. The story goes that John first learnt poker on the flight over to the States, on route to Oklahoma State University to study marketing and management.

He played a bit of poker during this University days, though strictly for fun, but he did learn a valuable lesson that would be crucial to his future poker career. John’s command of the English language was not so good when he first arrived and, because of this, he often found himself reading people’s body language to ascertain their meaning. He listened a lot too and has wisely said, ‘We don’t learn anything when we talk, even if it is more fun to hear ourselves’. This could almost be his poker maxim.

John passed his degree in 1994 and returned to Indonesia to help out with the family business with an eye to start an offshoot venture of his own. But, things didn’t go quite to plan. With the excitement of being back home and among his old friends, John did a bit of partying. Thanks to his status as graduate from a U.S. college, he had a credit card with a $40,000 limit and, drink-fuelled, he and his friends hit the local casinos.

With obvious comparison to his father, John lost and was soon $15,000 in debt with no way of paying it back. Unwilling to confess to his family, John asked his mother for $40,000 so he could do his Master’s degree back in America. He paid off the casino and returned, this time to Seattle University, with another important lesson learnt.

However, short on his college fees, he was forced to take part-time work. One job was as a door-to-door Bible salesman and that even earned him the Employee of the Month award, despite the fact that Juanda is a Buddhist!

Early in 1996, he and some friends visited a casino situated in a local Indian reservation where the local gambling ban didn’t apply. Texas Hold’em was on offer but remembering his earlier experiences, John didn’t want to play. He was intrigued though and over the next few weeks his resolve faltered, though not before he had read up on the game in any poker book he could get his hands on. His first buy-in was $100 and incredibly, since then Juanda has never gone broke. Every cent that has funded every poker game he has played since originated from that first $100 stake.

Juanda finished his Masters and started playing poker full-time, moving to Los Angeles where the prizes were bigger. In 1998, he began to cash-in in some small tournaments and the following year entered the World Series of Poker for the first time. He entered two Limit Hold’em events, managing a creditable ninth place out of 609 entrants in his first event and making the final table in the next.

The late nineties was the time he made mutually beneficial friends with Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Allen Cunningham though his superior bankroll management meant he was often called upon to help them out when they went broke. But, it was the desire to learn the game from each other that set each of the players up for the beginning of the next century though arguably it has been Juanda who has been quietly the most consistent.

In 2001, he won his first major tournament, Jack Binion’s World Poker Open, and he chose this moment to finally tell his mother that he was a professional poker player. In the 2002 WSOP he reached the final table in no fewer than four events and also took his first bracelet at Limit Triple Draw. In 2003 he did even better by winning another two WSOP titles. Since then, he has reached final table after final table.

He has 62 WSOP cashes to his name, his current WSOP bracelet count is 5. One bracelet and $1,580,096 came while playing No Limit Hold’em in 2008 and the other WSOP win came in 2011 this time in No Limit Deuce To Seven Draw. He also came first in the Aussie Millions, this was in 2006 when he cashed ¾ of a million dollars. His biggest cash earning to date for a single event is the $1,646,753 he got for fifth place at the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller, a huge bankroll especially when you consider this was for 5th place. A WPT win has alluded him so far. His cashes in 2012 totalled more than 3 million dollars

John brings his Buddhist philosophy to the poker table and that partly accounts for his calm, unflappable demeanor. He doesn’t get upset when he loses because his ideology teaches him to respect his opponents. This respect is mutual and though he doesn’t have the high profile that some of his more animated, attention-grabbing colleagues have, he is not short of admirers.

With Eric Seidel, he has opened an Indonesian restaurant called Java Spice in Los Angeles but, rather than just being a sitting partner, he is decidedly hands-on regularly visiting the place. When people hear he is in town, custom soars and he has the humility to involve himself in taking orders and serving customers with the same patient approach that he applies to poker.

He donates some of his winnings to various charities, including cancer research, and has put up the money for his sister to go to college. Juanda is a private man who enjoys the success that poker has afforded him but he is still seeking out new challenges. His dream is to study to become a doctor so he can return to Indonesia to practice medicine there. And if his bedside manner is anywhere as calm and level-headed as his poker table manner, he can an expect a full house at his surgery.

Last updated May 2013