World Poker Tour

David Chiu

Birthplace
China

Hometown
Roland Heights, CA

Birthday
August 23

Total Winnings
$3,642,141

David Chiu was born and raised in China, and he came to the United States in 1978 as an 18-year old college exchange student. Looking forward to the opportunities that America would provide for his future, he settled in Oregon and attended Oregon State University where he majored in computer science. After college, he moved to Denver, Colorado where he owned a Chinese restaurant. During the 1990’s, poker became a bigger part of David’s life, and by 1996 he had sold the restaurant and begun playing poker professionally.

Having made the transition to pro poker player, David decided to move to Los Angeles one year later, where card clubs and action were aplenty. He took his time to learn all of the games to become a mixed game specialist, though limit hold’em remains his best game. He credits much of his success to being partially deaf, having lost 35% of his hearing at an early age, because it heightened his other senses and enabled him to use his other abilities to read players. Over the 15 years he has played poker, he has diversified his career to include cash games and tournaments, and his tournament results date back to 1981 with a total of more than $5.8 million.

David has had a phenomenal career in poker with an amazing 37 cashes in the World Series of Poker, 15 of which were final tables, and four that resulted in bracelet victories. He also has seven World Poker Tour cashes, though the only final table was during the Season 1 Invitational. With a great fondness for the WPT, David finally achieved a huge milestone in his career in April of 2008. Not only did he make his second WPT final table, but he made one of the biggest comebacks in poker history. By playing conservatively at the WPT World Championship until he was heads-up with Gus Hansen, he took his serious chip deficit and turned it into a win. He claimed one of the most prestigious titles in poker, along with $3,389,140 in prize money. With newfound respect from the poker community, David Chiu is on his way to becoming one of poker’s legendary players.