John Juanda Biography
John Juanda is one of the most successful Team Full Tilt Poker players with 4 WSOP bracelets, 49 WSOP cashes and almost $10 Million in live tournament winnings.
John was born on July 8th, 1971 in Medan, Indonesia, where he was raised throughout his childhood. John made his way over to the United States in 1990 to begin schooling at Oklahoma State University. It might surprise you to know that John was quite the track star in high school, performing strongly in races from as short as 200 metres to as long as 5K.
Juanda started playing poker professionally around 1998 with his first big score being a $31,800 payday for finishing first in the 1998 L.A. Poker Classic limit hold’em event. John continued his tournament success with many more cashes before winning Card Player magazines tournament player of the year title in both 2001 and 2002. John finally broke through at the WSOP in 2002 winning his first bracelet and just under $50K in the $1.5K triple draw lowball ace to five tournament. Juanda has since won 3 more bracelets making his total 4 WSOP gold bracelets. The bracelets aren’t the only success Juanda has had at the WSOP though. He has cashed in 49 events which ranks 9th in WSOP history!
Juanda’s biggest tournament score and most recent WSOP bracelet victory actually came in Europe at the WSOPE main event. The event had a £10,000 buy-in which meant it was really around a $20,000 USD buy-in. 362 players showed up to battle for the title, but Juanda was able to outlast them all and take home about $1.7M and the coveted WSOPE main event bracelet.
Juanda’s career is far from over as he proved at this year’s 2009 WSOP. Juanda made the final table of 4 WSOP events finishing 4th twice and coming so close to winning his 5th bracelet.
You can play with John at Full Tilt Poker. He is not often online, but when he is at a table his name will show up in red ink. The upcoming FTOPS XIII online poker series may be a great time to catch John Juanda in action and try to take him out of some of the bigger tourneys to take down his bounty prize. Sign up to Full Tilt Poker now using Full Tilt Poker referral code “THEFULLTILT” in order to receive a Full Tilt bonus of up to $600 when you make your first deposit online.
