Overview:
The win was celebrated in Hmong communities across the United States, with many believing Yang had become the first Hmong-American millionaire, and drew widespread media attention.
One of Fresno’s most successful Japanese restaurants has an unusual origin story. Not only is it led by a chef who is not Japanese, but its creation is linked to what owner Jerry Yang says is his knack for being able to read the behavior of people.
Yang was born in Northeast Laos in the late 1960s when war was disrupting life and displacing families. He spent more than four years of his childhood in a refugee camp in Thailand before his family moved to the United States when he was 11, first to Tennessee, then the Midwest and then California, where Yang thrived as a student.
From such a challenging start, Yang marvels that his path led him to become not only an entrepreneur and one of the Valley’s most successful Hmong business leaders but also perhaps the United States’ first Hmong millionaire.
It all stems from a moment in 2005 when Yang realized, while watching a professional poker tournament, that he could “read” the players.
“I saw poker for the very first time on TV with my wife sitting on the couch one night,” Yang recalled in a recent interview. “I was watching the behavior of the players at the table, and I could tell when they had strong hands or weak hands based on how they behaved, and I said, ‘Maybe I can do this.’”
Yang purchased books to learn about poker. Soon after, he began playing at local casinos in Southern California and developing his skills in the game.
In May 2007, he won a local poker satellite tournament and earned himself a seat at the 38th annual World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas. It was an opportunity that would change his life. That summer, Yang found himself competing against 6,000 players at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Advancing in the tournament was no easy matter.
“I was losing a lot of chips, and I thought I was going to get knocked out of the tournament. But through the day, I gained some chips back and finally, I went to the final table,” Yang said.
At the end of 10 days of competition, Yang claimed the poker championship title, taking home a jackpot of $8.25 million. The win was celebrated in Hmong communities across the United States, with many believing Yang had become the first Hmong-American millionaire, and drew widespread media attention.
“There were cameras everywhere, and it was surreal. I couldn’t imagine I’d be in that position to be interviewed by Sports Illustrated and all these well-known media companies,” he said.
Yang returned home to Southern California. But, he and his wife decided to move to the San Joaquin Valley, where Yang and his family had lived in the 1980s while working on farms.
Yang’s poker winnings allowed him to pursue a dream that had first formed during a time as a child in the refugee camps, where hunger was common. He would open a restaurant.
He recalled that, during those years, “I said to myself, if my family gets a chance to come to America, I want to own my own restaurant so I don’t have to worry about when I’m going to eat or what I’m going to eat. Food was very scarce in the camp, so I was always hungry.”
In 2009, he opened his first business in Merced, a Japanese restaurant that he named “Pocket 8’s Sushi & Grill.” The name honored his final, winning hand at the World Series of Poker.
“Pocket 8 means you have two 8’s in hand and I won with that,” Yang said.
Yang said his passion for Japanese food comes not only from its nutritious benefits, but by the art that goes into its creation and presentation. He learned how to create the dishes by watching YouTube videos and working with a chef he hired.
And he developed his skills with a central inspiration: “Make that dish like you will make it for your family,” Yang said.
In Hmong culture, Yang’s status as a “middle child” in his family meant he often stayed at home to help care for his younger siblings. That led to time spent in the family’s kitchen.
“I did most of the cooking and cleaning after my siblings,” he told Fresnoland. “I grew up like that, and that’s why I came to love food, cooking, receiving people, and showing hospitality.”
In 2015, Yang opened his second restaurant, Dynamite Grill in Las Vegas, and he traveled back and forth between California and Nevada to operate both. In the years since, however, Yang has closed the two locations to focus on one restaurant, his current business in Fresno, where he grew up. He opened Shobu Japanese Cuisine on North Blackstone Avenue in 2019.
Shobu is one of the highest-rated Japanese restaurants in Fresno, according to Yelp. When asked about his future plans, Yang told Fresnoland that, after 16 years in the restaurant business, he is beginning to plan for his retirement, which he hopes will give him time to travel and to continue giving back to the community.
Most of his employees are college students and Yang encourages the public to support local businesses as they “are truly the engines of our economy and provide jobs for students.”
“I hope I can inspire some young people one day, especially those who want to get into one of the hardest industries,” Yang said. “When you don’t dream, there is no reality. And, once you do, anything is possible.”
Shobu Japanese Cuisine, located on Herndon and Blackstone is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. On Saturdays, it is open all day from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.
