Chau Tu Giang (born July 2,
1955 in Vietnam
) is an
American
professional
poker player of Chinese
descent, who
is a three time World
Series of Poker bracelet winner and a three time final tablist
of the World Poker Tour with over
$3 million in live tournament winnings alone.
Biography
Giang fled
Vietnam in a small boat in the late 1970s and arrived in Florida
, working
minimum wage jobs. He moved to Colorado
soon after,
taking a job as a chef at $160 per week.
It was then that he began to learn poker.
His success in poker
led him to move to Las Vegas
, where he made more than $100,000 in his first year
as a professional player.
Poker
He first had success at the
World
Series of Poker (WSOP) in 1993, where he finished 2nd in the
$1,500 Pot Limit
Hold'em event to
John Bonetti, and winning his first bracelet in
the $1,500 Ace to Five Draw event the same year.
He first cashed in the WSOP Main Event in
1996, finishing in 13th place. He
won a second bracelet in the $2,000 Omaha 8 or Better event in
1998, and a third
bracelet in the $2,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in 2004, finishing
ahead of
Robert Williamson
III,
Dave Colclough and
Chris Ferguson.
World Series of Poker bracelets
The big game
Giang avoided playing tournaments other than the WSOP for many
years, as he preferred to concentrate on his cash game play, where
he plays $4,000/$8,000 limit regularly. Giang is a regular in "The
Big Game" in Las Vegas, alongside his next-door neighbor
Doyle Brunson. He returned to tournaments when
his children asked him why he was not on the television. His first
World Poker Tour (WPT) cash was 9th
place in the first WPT Championship. He would also cash in the
second WPT Championship. However, his largest tournament prize to
date was 2nd place in the 2005 $10,000 World Poker Open, which
earned him $773,448.
Poker philosophy
Giang has regularly stated that poker is not a game of chance, and
is remembered for telling Dana Smith in a 1994 interview, "At the
table I hear people say, ‘Poker is luck.’ That is 100 percent
wrong. If they are losing, it is because they're doing something
wrong. Poker is skill, it isn't luck. In the long run, day after
day after day, you cannot get lucky all the time."
Giang used to play online at
Full Tilt
Poker under the user name "La Key U" and was signed as a Pro in
January 2009. He earned 2.1 million playing online in 2008.
Giang is married and has three children.
As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,500,000.
His 51 cashes as the WSOP account for $1,767,062 of those winnings.
He is in 8th for most all time cashes at the WSOP.
Notes
- World Series of Poker Earnings,
worldseriesofpoker.com
-
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/index.asp?sort=cashed
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