All forms of gambling in Indonesia are illegal. Poker is played mostly in underground casinos or online in underground internet cafés. If found guilty of the crime of gambling in this country that is governed by eighty percent of the people believing in the Muslim religion people can be sentenced to receiving strokes of the cane, or up to ten years in prison. Even with all that against them, and the fact that poker is no where near as popular there as it is in North America, some truly amazing poker players have originated from Indonesia.
One of the most well known poker players from Indonesia is Johnson “John” Juanda. He was born on July 8th, 1971 in the city of Medan, Indonesia. John now lives in Marina del Rey, California. He came to the United States in 1990, when he enrolled into Oklahoma University. By 2001 for two years in a row John was Player of the Year as decided and awarded by Cardplayer Magazine’s tournament. To date his net winnings top nine million dollars US. His favourite style of poker is no limit Holdem and pot limit.
Another famous poker player, that shares the name of the infamous Indonesian dictator, is Darus Suharto. He was born in Indonesia in the year of 1968. He later moved himself and his family to Toronto, Ontario where he now works as an accountant. During college he started playing poker with friends, but his professional start came by playing online poker through Poker Stars. The year 2005 is where everything changed for Daurs. He won his seat for free to the World Series of Poker Main Event in Vegas, by playing satellite poker. After travelling to Vegas he won twenty six thousand dollars by placing in 448th place. The following year, again he won his seat for free but this time his winnings won him a seat in the main event. 2007 is what made Darus famous. He placed sixth and ended up with winnings of almost two and a half million dollars. Darus continues to play poker, but he mostly plays as fun, and with as much spare time as a full time career and a busy family will allow.
Other poker players in Indonesia are not in a hurry to step forward and make any claims to fame, due to the strict laws of their country. Those who choose to try to make poker a living while living in Indonesia often travel, flying out of Jakarta to play elsewhere. There are a few people who can be found on the internet who brag of playing poker online, and living in Indonesia, claiming they make enough money to live on. However the same people are also not paying any taxes on their winnings because they do not know how to pay taxes on an illegal activity. If caught they face charges of tax evasion and of illegal gambling. Becoming a famous poker player living in Indonesia is not easy.