Jerry Yang (or, Xao Yang) is an amateur poker player who made a name for himself when he won the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event. He was born in Laos in 1968.His family moved briefly to Thailand in the 1970s, to escape the communist regime, before heading to the USA in 1979. Jerry Yang, the poker player, should not be confused with the Taiwanese American man, Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang, who was co-founder of Yahoo! Inc.

Jerry Yang studied health psychology at Loma Linda University, earning a masters degree. He spent a brief time working as a therapist and a social worker. He is married, and has six children. 

Jerry's victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that he did not start playing poker until 2005. He gained entry to the WSOP by winning a $225 satellite tournament at the Pechanga Resort and Casino near his home town of Temecula. Before the World Series of Poker, he had racked up only four cashes in local events.

Jerry Yang offers hope to amateur poker players everywhere – he is a normal, everyday person who entered a tournament, and through skill, a little luck, and, no doubt, the knack at reading people that a psychology degree will give you, won big. He lists his hobbies as being reading, camping, golf, and charity work, and says his favorite celebrity is Oprah Winfrey.

His ambition is to become the most respected poker player in the world, and to own some businesses. He is doing well with the poker side of things, since his victory in the WSOP main event has put him in 8^th place in the 'all time money list' – only a few million shy of names such as Jamie Gold and Phil Hellmuth Jr.

Jerry started the final table ranking 8^th in chips, but played aggressively and quickly gained a big lead which he held until the end of the event. While gaining the lead, he eliminated 7 of the other 8 players on the table. His face-off against Tuan Lam lead to a victory, and over $8 million in prize money, after a 12 hour battle.

Yang pledged to donate 10% of his winnings to charity, and nominated the Make A Wish Foundation, Feed the Children, and the Ronald McDonald house as the charities to benefit.