InterPoker

Visit InterCasino

Poker pro conned

2006-05-31 18:00:00

Poker professional Johnny Chan was reportedly conned out of $150,000 by a trickster claiming he was opening a poker room.

Records from Californian Riverside County Superior Court from several years ago reveal that Chan handed over the cash for the development of a local stadium, Online Poker News reports.

Chinese-born Chan was allegedly contacted by Temecula man John Robert White who claimed that the new development would include a poker room and offered him the chance to invest in the venture.

The 50-year-old conman also appears to have tricked five other victims between December 2003 and November 2004 and deputy district attorney Michael Silverman is quoted as saying that losses totalled as much as $232,000.

The con artist is understood to have been held at the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley in lieu of $232,000 bail.

The 1987-88 World Champion and Poker Hall of Fame inductee has won the World Series of Poker twice and played himself as the best poker player in the world in the movie Rounders, though he has failed to set the tables alight in recent years.

Poker Stuff