Is John Juanda Broke?

Has John Juanda Gone Broke?

In the modern world, poker is becoming a morally acceptable game by many religious groups. However, it still faces some challenges from being universally accepted by many Christians. In addition, when talking of successful poker players in the world, John Juanda is normally left out. He has a special interest in religion and quiet in nature and this at times makes people forget about how great a player he really is. Before he became a professional poker, John Juanda sold bibles in the US.

A Child Prodigy

Although he is actually Chinese, John “JJ” Juanda was born on July 8th, 1971 in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. He lived with his grandparents for a while as his parents began a new business venture. His father, a gambler himself, often warned him of the dangers of gambling. He did not take his father’s advice and took gambling to his elementary school by shooting marbles for money although gambling was illegal in Indonesia.

During his high school days, he was a track start for the 200 meter sprints to 5000 meters races. In 1990, he boarded a flight bound for the United States where he was to attend college. It was that in this flight that a friend happened to teach Juanda the game of poker. He later began college at Oklahoma State University. When not in class or working, John Juanda was honing his skill in poker at local casinos. He later graduated with a bachelor degree in Marketing and Management. He successfully completed a master’s degree in Business Administration at Seattle University. Juanda worked as a bible salesperson and traded stocks until 1996 where he had built an adequate bankroll to play poker full time.

John Juanda’s Top 5 Tournament Cashes

-8th place for 107,550 EUR at the 2015 EPT-12-EUREKA-5-Prague –Super High Roller, Hilton Prague Hotel

– 2nd place for HK$ 5,574,000 at the 2015 APPT 2015 Asia Championship of Poker– Super High Roller, City of Dreams

– 4th place for 426,800 EUR at the 2014 –EPT-10-FPS-4-Grand Final, High Roller 8 Max, Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

– 5th place for $54,770 at the 2013- 44th Word Series of Poker, Rio Hotel and Casino

– 92nd place for $12,669 at the 2010 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Bellagio

-237th place for $38,453 at the 43rd at WSOP 2012, Rio Hotel and Casino

John Juanda has played in the highest ranking poker games until he moved to Japan and Macau to concentrate on his life. It has been four years since he left Las Vegas until recently he played at EPTB Barcelona. How and why he has been away from the North American radar has raised questions on his net worth despite having a lingering illness.

So Is John Juanda Actually Broke?

Mild mannered JJ’s early earnings mainly came from a few games that he played and won took place during weekends as an amateur, where JJ bankrolled his first few games when he began his career in poker. Notable biggest ever single score came from winning the WSOPE in 2008 for 868,800 EUR. He is currently the 10th richest professional poker player in the world and enjoys a net worth of $4.4 Million from 65 different series as of today.

Other tournaments that he has won include five WSOP bracelets and a few other key poker titles to his name. They include, Tipple Draw Lowball Ace to Five (2002), Seven Card Stud HI-Lo Split (2003), Pot Limit Omaha (2003), No Lit Hold’em Main Event (2008) and 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (2011). Most recently, Juanda topped the field of the EPT Season 12 Barcelona €5,300 Main Event to collect €1,022,593. In 2015, John Juanda was added as the 50th member in Hall of Fame in poker.

However, in recent years, JJ has been leading a quiet life in Japan. He has property under his name in Nevada. Nowadays, he plays in High Stake games with other poker elite members like Ben Affleck, Sam Simon and Tobey Maguire.

While John is very aggressive at the poker table, it is said that he is a very nice guy. This kind nature will one day lead John back to his homeland of Indonesia where he one day plans on becoming a doctor and helping those in need. It can be easy speculated that with the way John is continuously progressing in his game, always trying to get better, that you can be sure that he will meet those goals and be very good at being a doctor. If you would like the opportunity to play with John, you can find him at one of his tables at Full Tilt Poker.