Poker Champ Bows to Prediction : Johnny Chan Defeated by Former Foe in World Series

Last year in Las Vegas, after Johnny Chan won the World Series of Poker for two years straight and finished first in yet another big competition there, he made a generous prediction.

In praising the man he’d just beaten, Chan revealed to a journalist that 24-year-old Phil Hellmuth had the makings of a world champion poker player.

Chan’s prediction came true remarkably fast. This week, Hellmuth defeated Chan in the ’89 World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, a meet that ended late Thursday afternoon after four grueling days of play. A resident of Madison, Wis., newcomer Hellmuth won $700,000 and deprived Cerritos-based Chan of becoming the first gambler ever to win the Series three years in a row.

Reached by phone in Las Vegas minutes after his win, the euphoric winner declared, “I feel fantastic. . . . I’ve only won one major tournament before--last year at the Bicycle Club (in Bell Gardens).”

Hellmuth--who says he’s never held a job and writes fiction and nonfiction books between tournaments rather than playing poker for income--has been gambling professionally for about three years. He studied accounting and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin but was not graduated.

‘Lost All My Chips’

“In the World Series last year, I lost all my chips to Johnny Chan,” he recalled. “And I lost all my chips to him in a big tournament last December. I decided I wasn’t going to do that again.”

Though none of Hellmuth’s books thus far has been published, his next likely literary project would seem to have an excellent chance for publication. As he put it, “Maybe I’ll write a poker book now.”

If Chan was disappointed to come in second in a field of more than 100 players, he certainly disguised it. “I’m happy,” claimed the freshly defeated champ, who was born in the People’s Republic of China and reared in Houston. “I earned $300,000 for four days’ work. Nobody would hire me for that unless I did a commercial or something.”

Chan attributed his second-place finish to tougher conditions and a sharp field of players. Some of his competitors also displayed a sporting sense of humor by bringing bananas, apples, cucumbers and squash with them to the poker tables. The salad motif came as a satirical reaction to Chan’s penchant for playing with a good-luck orange at his side during major tournaments.

His response? With a bemused laugh, Chan indicated he was more entertained than offended: “They’re sick people.”