John Lam “popkorn“

Birthplace
Toronto

Hometown
Toronto

Birthday
July 22

Total Winnings
$313,094

John Lam is used to people yelling at him. In fact, for a long while, he made his living by suffering the diatribes and rants of high-speed Internet customers. A technical support operator in an ISP call-center, Lam learned to take just about anything people threw at him. Day after day, he listened to people scream. Each day, Lam developed more patience, more control, and more discipline. They were all traits he used while enjoying his avocation: poker.

While he toyed with the idea of becoming a professional poker player, Lam's more disciplined side knew that the ups and downs of the game were more than he wanted to stomach professionally. Still, he didn't stop playing. One day he heard that the World Poker Tour was going to be headed to his native Canada for the first time. It seemed like a good chance to toy around with his hobby. For $160, he entered a small satellite that fed into a bigger satellite into the $10,000 WPT North American Poker Championship in Niagara Falls. Then next thing he knew, he was playing in his first major poker tournament. He stood to win more money than he could ever make by letting people yell at him.

Though his early days in the event did not look promising, he was able to rally and make his way all the way to the final table. Suddenly, the people weren't yelling for insteas of at him. Still young, Lam doesn't have any grand illusions about becoming a pro poker player. However, with the kind of money WPT final table players make, Lam certainly has something of his own to shout about now.