John Juanda

John Juanda was born on July 8, 1971, in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, into a Hoklo Chinese family, and excelled as a high school track athlete before moving to the United States in 1990 to attend Oklahoma State University, later earning an MBA from Seattle University. He began playing tournament poker in 1996 and won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2002, going on to collect five bracelets and three Best All Around Player awards over his career. Juanda was among the founders of the online poker site Full Tilt Poker and built career earnings of close to twelve million dollars across more than two hundred tournament cashes. He remains one of the most successful players of Indonesian origin in the history of the game and is widely regarded within the poker community for his philanthropic work.