Poker in Asia
Gambling has always been a big part of the Asian culture –in certain countries anyway. However, poker as we know it has only recently caught fire across Asia, surprising when you consider China is credited with having created the first playing cards –which seems to make a lot of sense when you consider they invented paper!
That said, many Asian immigrants to the US have gone on to have incredibly successful poker careers including a slew of Vietnamese players as well as players from mainland China and other Asian nations. This is not a new phenomenon either, as players like Men “the Master” Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, Johnny Chan, Chau Giang, David Chiu, Mimi Tran, JJ Liu, and John Juanda are considered amongst the best poker players of all time.
Now that poker has infiltrated the country it’s really unsurprising that poker has caught on so quickly in most Asian countries after the Internet spread the game around the globe; considering countries like Vietnam and China are renowned for their deep gambling culture.
Nowadays, Asia is quickly becoming a prime spot for high stakes poker, with the games in the Macau casinos renowned for being some of the biggest in the world. It seems that other than Japan, poker has become one of the games of choice in Asian culture. You’ll even find major poker tours making stops on Asian locales, including the Asia Pacific Poker Tour appt), which hosts one of the hottest stops of any poker tour each year in Macau.
Famous Asian Poker Players
There is no shortage of well-known poker players from Asia—as you can see from above—and for many years poker players were almost exclusively American or Asian.
How successful have Asian immigrants been in poker? This statistic should sum up it quite nicely: Johnny Chan, Men Nguyen, John Juanda, and Scotty Nguyen, have 27 WSOP bracelets between them. Canada has 27 bracelets, the UK has 25 bracelets! Just four Asian players have more WSOP bracelets than any country other than the US!
One country I haven’t spoken about yet is Japan, basically because Japan doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot of poker players! They do have one however, long-time pro Yosh Nakano, who is by far the most well-known Japanese poker player –although this is like being the valedictorian of summer school, considering he can’t even crack into the following list.
Here is a look at the top Asian poker players as well as some of their accomplishments:
Johnny Chan
- 10-time WSOP bracelet winner
- 2-time WSOP Main Event winner
- 1987 and 1988 Main Event champion, PLUS Chan was the runner-up in 1989!
- Over $8.5 million in career tournament earnings
- Long-time high-stakes cash-game player
- Became a folk hero in the poker world after cameo in Rounders
- Poker Hall of Fame member
