WSOP 1987: Johnny Chan’s Orient Express

Start of the Series

The game began on May 1 with Event #1: $1,000 Limit A-5 Draw Lowball. A total of 216 participants registered for the event. The extended prize pool included 16 places, featuring Johnny Moss (12th place) and Don Williams (2nd place) from Ohio. By this time, Moss held the most WSOP bracelets—8. He would continue to play in the series for another five years and win one more. Williams, on the other hand, had two bracelets and would also win another, but ahead of him were 11 final tables at the WSOP, including the 1991 Main Event final.

The winner of this tournament was Bob Addison. This was the biggest success for a player from California. In subsequent history, he would finish in the money twice more but never approach a bracelet closer than 10th place.

Event #2: $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball (Rebuy) gathered 37 players. This was quite an expensive tournament, with players making 31 rebuys. The total prize was $340,000, and the first place went to Billy Baxter, already familiar to readers of our historical posts. Baxter won 7 WSOP bracelets, 6 of which were in Lowball tournaments. He was a major organizer in the American poker industry and also made history by winning a lawsuit against the IRS. Baxter continues to play to this day. In 2024, he made the money in Lowball tournaments twice.

Behind Billy in this tournament were: Joe Petro (2nd place), Johnny Chan (3rd place), Sam Angel (4th place), and the reigning WSOP champion Berry Johnston (5th place).

I believe there’s no need to explain Billy Baxter’s level of play in Lowball to anyone, but let’s take another look at Johnny Chan, who finished in third place and received $51,000.

Let’s take this opportunity to showcase the player’s high variance. In 1983, he finished in the money in a Heads-Up NLH tournament, then won the largest Limit Hold’em tournament, and now he is in the money in NL 2-7 Lowball, with successes ahead in NLH, Pot-Limit Hold’em, Seven Card Stud, Limit Omaha, PLO, and PLO8. Chan literally played all the types of poker available at the WSOP and succeeded in most of them.

Event #3: $1,000 Limit Omaha took place on May 3 and awarded the first bracelet (of six) to T.J. Cloutier. This renowned player from Texas defeated Robert Turner and received $72,000 in prize money. Also in the money were Mickey Appleman (4th place), Frank Henderson (5th place), and Linda Ryke Drucker (12th place).

Mid-Series

Event #4: $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud took place on May 4. Remember Don Williams, who took second place in the very first event of the series? Here, he found himself in second place again. The tournament was won by Artie Cobb from New York. This was his second bracelet out of four, but Cobb continues to play poker to this day. His previous WSOP money finish was in the 2024 series.

Notably, Barbara Freer finished in the money, securing 7th place.

Event #5: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Stud took place the next day and gathered a large field of 259 players. The tournament was won by Jim Craig, who took home $103,600.

Event #6: $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (Rebuy) was another rebuy tournament that attracted a small field of well-funded players. With 91 participants, 83 rebuys were made. The first prize of $174,000 went to Hal Kant. In second place was entrepreneur Lyle Berman, fourth place went to Bob Ciaffone (whom we will remember later in this series), fifth place to Steve Zolotow, and eighth place, a regular in WSOP prize zones, went to Dewey Tomko.

The Biggest Tournament of the Series

Event #7: $1,500 Limit Hold’em took place on May 7 and gathered a massive field of 342 players. Everything would have been perfect, but the tournament failed to break the WSOP record set in 1985. The record of 342 participants was repeated. Last time, the tournament was won by Johnny Chan; in 1987, it was won by Ralph Morton from Washington. In second place was the 1984 WSOP champion Jack Keller, and Hamid Dastmalchi finished fourth in the tournament.

Special mention goes to the appearance of a young player—Howard Lederer from Concord, New Hampshire. At that time, he was 23 years old, professionally played chess, and was teaching his younger sister to play poker. Howard’s younger sister is Annie Duke. Lederer had already dropped out of Columbia University to become a poker player, but his previous attempt to achieve success in 1986 failed. In May 1987, Lederer got a second chance. Do you know how he took advantage of it?

Event #8: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo took place on May 8 and gathered 233 players. The victory went to Joe Petro, who had already made a mark in this series’ prize money. 1987 was his WSOP debut; he won a bracelet and took second place. In the following years, Joe would continue to regularly reach final tables but never win a second bracelet.

Event #9: $1,000 Limit Razz attracted 163 participants. The winner was Carl Rouss. In the money were David Sklansky (4th place), Berry Johnston (11th place), and David ‘Chip’ Reese (16th place).

Women’s Tournament

Event #10: $500 Ladies Limit Seven Card Stud attracted 84 participants.

Let’s look at how many participants were in the similar women’s tournament in previous years:

If you’re interested, the number of participants decreased each time the tournament’s buy-in increased. Initially, it was $100, then $400, and in 1987, participants contributed $500 to the prize pool.

The winner was Linda Ryke Drucker from Las Vegas. She debuted in the 1987 series and had already made a mark in the open tournament’s prize money. She would have to wait ten years for her next prize.

In the prizes was Cyndy Violette (5th place). It is worth mentioning that in 1985, she won $74,000 playing Seven Card Stud at the 1985 Stairway to the Stars tournament in Las Vegas. By that time, this prize was the largest ever won by a woman in poker. Cyndy used her success to move to Washington State and spent the next two years raising children without playing poker. After two years of not playing, she returned to Las Vegas, Nevada and finished in the money in this tournament.

Conclusion of the Series

The last tournament of the series took place on May 11. This was Event #11: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, which gathered 313 participants. The tournament was won by Hilbert Shirey from Florida. Hugh Todd from South Africa took third place. For Todd, this was his fourth final table, but the largest prize up to that point. Also in the money were T.J. Cloutier (5th place) and the 1983 champion Tom McEvoy (7th place).

WSOP 1987 Results

Here is a 40-minute video from 1987:

In the Money

The prize pool for the tournament was expanded similarly to the WSOP Main Event 1986. There were 36 players in the prize zone, and the first participants in the prize zone did not even cover the tournament buy-in. The first to cash was Jose Rosenkrantz from San Juan, Costa Rica, who received $7,500.

Also in the money were already familiar players who came to the WSOP from outside the United States. These included George McKeever from Londonderry, Northern Ireland; Hugh Todd from Cape Town, South Africa; Humberto Brenes from San Jose, Costa Rica; and Hamid Dastmalchi, born in Iran.

All of them were pioneers of the WSOP but did not make it to the tournament’s final table this year.

Here’s what former WSOP champion Bobby Baldwin said about this:

“The WSOP began as a small group of Texans, Southern players. Now it’s evolved into an international event, with a contingency of players from England, Ireland, and Africa. It’s expanded.”

Additionally, outside the final table was last year’s champion Berry Johnston, who finished in 32nd place and received $7,500 in prize money.

Johnny Moss (WSOP champion in 1970, 1971, 1974) and Bobby Baldwin (WSOP champion in 1978) each received $10,000 in prize money. Moss finished in 26th place, and Baldwin finished in 21st.

Puggy Pearson (1973 champion) received a $12,500 payout. This year, Puggy finished in 17th place, but he would finish in the money at the WSOP twice more in subsequent years.

The last active champion was Jack Keller, who finished in 9th place and, by today’s standards, could be considered a participant at the final table. In those years, the final table was considered to be 6-max, which ESPN’s television team filmed along with commentator Ted Robinson.

In 8th place, the tournament was concluded by Mickey Appleman from Fort Lee, New Jersey. He would become a well-known player and finish in the top 25 of the Main Event four times. Appleman had been playing at the WSOP since 1975, using funds he won from sports betting for buy-ins. Mickey was a regular at New York’s Mayfair Club, where he played against Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer, and Erik Seidel.

The last to leave before the official final table was Eldon Elias from Palo Alto, California.

Final Table

And now we are at the 6-max final table. Let’s see who made it to this final table:

Dan Harrington – One of the main authors in poker history. By this time, Dan had not yet won his bracelets; this was only his third money finish in poker tournaments and his first in the WSOP Main Event.

Howard Lederer – The youngest participant at the final table in history. If Bobby Baldwin was a young champion, winning the tournament at 28, Lederer made the final table at 23.

Jim Spain – A regular tournament player from Tunica, Mississippi. This was his fourth WSOP final table and the last of his career. He never won a bracelet. At every WSOP final table he reached, he always finished in second or fourth place. After 1987, Jim stopped playing and only finished in the money seven years later. Jim (actually James Edward Spain) lived in Albertville, Alabama, and celebrated 50 years of sobriety in the Alcoholics Anonymous community. He was inducted into the Senior Poker Players Hall of Fame and passed away in 2010. After his death, his family (he left behind two sons, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren) suggested making donations to Alcoholics Anonymous instead of laying flowers.

Bob Ciaffone – Player and author of “Robert’s Rules of Poker.” Later, in 2003, he became the president of the Michigan Chess Association, wrote several books on poker and chess, and was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Bob passed away in Michigan in 2022.

Frank Henderson – Player from Houston, Texas. By 1987, he already had seven WSOP final tables but had not yet won a bracelet.

Johnny Chan – A player of Asian descent who dropped out of university and the family business to become a poker player. In his early years, opponents constantly underestimated Johnny and paid off his hands to see what cards the Asian-origin player would hold. According to Johnny’s recollections, he actively used this trait to achieve success before everyone knew his name.

The first to leave the final table was Dan Harrington, who lost with A-Q against A-6 Jim Spain.

Next to exit the game was Howard Lederer. He went all-in with the same A-6 and was called by Bob Ciaffone with a pocket pair of nines. On the flop, Bob got a set, and his hand held.

In his first interview, Lederer said:

“I certainly felt that at some point in my poker career, I’d get to the final table. In my first effort in such a big tournament, I didn’t expect to get here.”

In fourth place in this tournament’s history was Jim Spain. He started the hand with K 7 and ended up against A J Johnny Chan. Both received a flush on the turn, but Johnny’s hand was dominant. Chan doubled his stack, and Spain left the table.

3-max Game

The game moved to the 3-max stage. You can watch this moment on the PokerGo channel:

In the 3-max, Chan doubled his stack again. On the flop K-J-4, Johnny made a check-raise all-in with K-Q, while Bob Ciaffone made a mistake by calling all-in with A4.

With a huge chip advantage, Chan continued to shove opponents out of the game.

Bob Ciaffone was eliminated in third place. His all-in with 7-5 on a J-7-6 flop was called by Johnny Chan’s A-J. Let’s open our Poker Odds Calculator and look at this hand. On the flop, Bob had a 23% chance to win. The turn was a 5, and now the situation flipped upside down. Ciaffone now leads with an 81% chance to win. The river was an Ace, and it was all over for him.

Heads-Up

Johnny Chan moves to the decisive heads-up with a massive chip lead against Frank Henderson. They go all-in in this historical poker hand, where Chan holds A 9 against his opponent’s pocket pair of fours 4 4 . This coin-flip could make Johnny the champion or double Frank’s short stack. Looking at the calculator, it’s roughly 45% for Johnny and 55% in favor of the pocket fours.

The flop comes 5 8 K – Frank Henderson’s chances increase to 71%.

The turn is 10 – now 86% in favor of Frank. Only 6 outs can help Chan finish the game here and now.

The river is 9 . Once again, the Orient Express moves his opponent on the river. Johnny Chan becomes the WSOP Main Event 1987 champion!

The Winner – Johnny Chan

Johnny Chan (Chinese: 陳金海) was born in Guangzhou, China, in 1957. At the age of three, Johnny moved with his family to Hong Kong, and in 1962, his parents relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, along with their son. This move brought Johnny to the United States when he was five years old. When Chan turned 16 in 1973, the family moved to Houston, Texas. His parents opened a Chinese restaurant named “Hoe Sai Gai” (translated as “Great Whirl”), where the young Johnny began playing cards with the restaurant staff.

Johnny recalls those times as frightening. He had to attend school where he was part of a national minority and did not speak English.

Poker increasingly attracted the young Chan. At his parents’ restaurant, a cash game was held weekly, in which Johnny could freely participate.

Johnny’s parents hoped he would take over the family business. Johnny himself enrolled at the University of Houston, where he studied hotel and restaurant management.

It’s hard to imagine now, but at the age of 16, Johnny found himself in Las Vegas, where he was able to join a cash game. His initial $500 for one evening turned into a respectable $20,000 for his age. However, the next day Chan lost all the money and was left with nothing. In those years, casino managers turned a blind eye to players being underage if they came to the casino with money.

At 21, Johnny dropped out of university and set out to conquer Las Vegas. His new goal was poker.

Johnny had to take several temporary jobs in Nevada to build a bankroll for playing. During this time, he studied poker and never gave up his dream of becoming a professional player. Chan recalls this period as the most difficult in his life. He lost a lot, faced discipline issues, and had to cover his losses by working extra jobs in casinos and borrowing money from friends. Chan reached the point where he sold his belongings at a local pawnshop, but he managed to get out of this situation.

His first significant success came in 1981 when the 24-year-old Chan won Bob Stupak’s 1981 American Cup tournament held at a casino owned by Bob Stupak. During the tournament, Chan eliminated 13 out of 16 players in just half an hour. After this tournament, Chan earned the nickname “The Orient Express.” According to some sources, there were nine players, and Chan defeated them in less than an hour. The nickname was coined by Bob Stupak himself. In the following years, 1982 and 1983, Chan won the main tournament of the same series with a $10,000 buy-in.

In 1985, Johnny won his first WSOP bracelet in a Limit Hold’em tournament for $1,000. A distinguishing feature of this tournament was the number of participants—342. This was a new record for the entire history of the WSOP series at that time. The next time, 342 participants were present in the tournament in 1987, when Chan became the series champion.

In 1987, Johnny won the main WSOP tournament, outperforming the highest number of participants for the Main Event. The following year, in 1988, Chan won again. The historic hand of 1988 is immortalized in the movie “Rounders,” where Matt Damon’s character reviews Johnny Chan’s game against Erik Seidel. Only Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar have won the WSOP Main Event back-to-back before Chan. If that seems insufficient, in 1989, Chan reached the final table of the WSOP Main Event again, finishing in second place to the youngest WSOP Main Event champion in history at that time, Phil Hellmuth.

Poker enthusiast Jerry Buss, who was also the owner of the NBA team Los Angeles Lakers, promised Chan an NBA championship ring if Johnny could win a third consecutive tournament.

If Chan had defeated Hellmuth in 1989, he would have joined a unique group of players who managed to win three main WSOP tournaments. Only two players have achieved this—Johnny Moss and Stu Ungar.

After losing to Hellmuth, Johnny did not give up. He set a new record by becoming the first to reach ten WSOP bracelets, surpassing both Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth.

WSOP players may remember Chan for carrying an orange with him to the table. The reason is that Johnny quit smoking, and casinos always had a strong tobacco smell. In this case, Johnny focused on the scent of the orange, which then became his good luck charm.

As of the end of 2024, Chan has 10 WSOP bracelets, 55 WSOP cashes, and $4,728,620 in WSOP earnings. Throughout his career, he has won a total of $8,795,309.

Johnny has participated in poker shows such as Poker Superstars I (second place), Poker Superstars II (winner), Poker Superstars III (semi-finalist), High Stakes Poker, and Poker After Dark (winning 4 out of 6 special episodes in which he participated).

Chan has six children, owns a fast-food franchise in Las Vegas, and consults for local casinos.

Co-authored with Mark Karowe, he has written the books “Play Poker Like Johnny Chan” and “Million Dollar Hold’em: Winning Big in Limit Cash Games.”

In 2007, Chan opened an online poker room called “ChanPokerOnline.com,” but the project was closed in August 2008. A similar fate awaited his live poker room in Texas, which was opened in 2021 under the name “Johnny Chan’s 88 Social,” but the project was closed in December of the same year.

In 1998, Johnny Chan made a cameo appearance in the movie “Rounders,” which we recommend you watch:

WSOP 1987 Main Event Results