Born in 1971 in Indonesia, John Juanda is in fact of Chinese ethnicity. He attended the Oklahoma State University, in the U.S., starting with 1990. On his way over, he learned how to play Texas Holdem on the plane, and even though he had other jobs following college (amongst which being a door-to-door salesman) poker would be the one thing that would end up changing his life forever.
While he did play poker during college, his career truly took off when he moved to Seattle after college. He began playing poker in local casinos there, and soon realized that he could actually make money playing the game.
In 2000, on his first WSOP, he took 10th place in a $3,000 FL Holdem event. The 2001 WSOP saw him belly up to the tables again, as he took 3rd place in the $2,500 seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Eight or better event, and 7th in the $3,000 FL Holdem one. In 2002, he was named the tournament champion of the year. He won a WSOP bracelet that year, in the $1,500 Triple Draw lowball Ace to Five Event which earned him a cash prize of $49,620.
In 2003, he won 2 other WSOP bracelets: one in the $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo split Event and one in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha one. These victories earned him $130,200 and $203,840 respectively.
In 2004, as the Professional Poker tour just had its debut at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, Juanda was there to win it all.
2005 was to be another great year for Juanda. He took home almost half a million dollars form Monte Carlo, where he took part in three separate events: The Monte Carlo Millions Consolidation tournament – which he won, the Monte Carlo Millions Main Event where he finished 6th, and the “Fulltiltpoker.net Invitational” where he ended up in 2nd place.
2006 would see a continuation of excellent results for Juanda. In January that year, he won the Crown Australian Poker Championship besting a field comprised of players like Tony G, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein and Mike Sexton. That win earned him around $732,000.
Juanda has an impressive collection of 44 money finishes in different WSOP events, three bracelets and a 31st place which is the closest he came to a Main Event title in 2005.
He’s had quite a few strong finishes in WPT events too, as he made no fewer than 6 final tables there. He never managed to capture a WPT title though.