In poker, life, Yang keeps grip on roots

COARSEGOLD, CA -- A guy walks into a casino. Stop me if you've heard this one.

More specifically, a guy walks into Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino, halfway from Fresno to Yosemite National Park.

He gets to the poker room and buys into one of its "satellite" tournaments for $120. The winner, he knows, gets free admission to a "qualifier" tournament. The winner of that gets free admission to the World Poker Tour Championship. That's a $25,500 entry fee.

So, in walks this little guy with a prayer in his eye, a sparkle in his heart, $120 in his pocket, and you know what? Cindy Crawford never got so many double-takes.

It's Jerry Yang.

It was indeed. Plain as tube socks.

Jerry Yang playing a satellite at Chukchansi is like Pavarotti crashing your choir practice or Martha Stewart bustin' into your bake sale with a pan of brownies, but he did.

Yang is Mr. Poker. He's not the best or the richest or the winningest of all time, but right now he's it. He's the 5-foot, 3-inch defending champion of the World Series of Poker main event, the most famous poker tournament there is. That was July, the tourney they replay 11 times per day on ESPN.

For that, Yang got $8.25 million and now constant reminders from his CPA that state taxes are due in December, federal in April.

Now, pretty much everyone who plays poker knows Yang's story. He was born in Laos and spent years in a Thai refugee camp, going hungry and watching relatives die.

Yang says it was then he decided he wanted to help children someday, and after he made it to the U.S., he became a social worker. Up until he became a multimillionaire, Yang was helping foster kids for an agency in Southern California.

The part of the story that hasn't been told is that Yang considers Fresno "actually my hometown." He and his parents moved to town in 1982 and he graduated from high school at the Fresno Adventist Academy in 1986.

Two years ago, living in Temecula, he started playing poker, or at least as much as a man with a wife and six kids can. On a mission to have two girls and two boys, Jerry and Su Yang had a half-dozen children; Beverly, 13; Justice, 11; Brittney, 9; Brooke, 7; Brielle, 5; Jordan, 3.

He played cheap tournaments that he could afford. Even the entry into the World Series tournament, he won at a qualifier at Pechanga Casino. The entry fee to that was $225.

Most people take 200 clams to a casino to either lose or double-up. It was if Yang did the latter ... for 36,666 straight days!

You always wonder how that kind of money will change a person and, so far, Yang still has a poker face. He bought his wife a car and put away enough for six college degrees and did as he promised, gave hundreds of thousands to children's charities. He gave $275,000 to the Ronald McDonald House. He handed the same amount to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in L.A., looked the CEO right in the eye and said, "Make sure the Fresno chapter gets its share."

Then he bought a house in Fresno and moved the family north to be closer to his parents. He hired his brother-in-law to be his manager. He gave money to poor family members in Laos.

"Out of all the pros," says Chukchansi's poker director, Julie Morgan, "he's probably the nicest I've ever met."

He's still playing the cheap tournaments, too, because a month ago he walked into Chukchansi to play the satellite and volunteered to sign autographs for an hour.

Casino employees looked around trying to figure out why no one mentioned Yang had a scheduled appearance. Because he didn't. Champs get appearance fees to play. Jerry Yang just shows up.

He won it, of course, and so Sunday he was back at Chukchansi to play Part II, one win from playing his way into a massive Vegas tournament from a California Indian casino. Again.

Except this time, yours truly got in the way. Asked Jerry if I could come watch him and, of course, he said yes.

Should have known it was a bad idea. I'm the one who parks a millimeter in front of someone's driveway and gets towed. I'm the guy who'd invest in John Daly at a slot machine. Sunday was my 31st birthday, though. You can't spread bad luck on your birthday, right?

Wrong. First hand, Jerry Yang loses all his chips to Steve Spate, professional grape grower.

"I think he thought I was just a local guy trying to bluff the World Series champ," Spate said.

Yang drove 40 minutes and played 5. One hand. Figures. The world champ can't beat a Fresno farmer with my luck around his neck. Not that he's worried.

"I want to set up a foundation in my name," says Yang. "Possibly my father's name. Hopefully, it will help the community in the future."

Fresno Bee

News Added: 01 November, 2007

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