diff --git a/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/Syntaxes/gfm.cson b/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/Syntaxes/gfm.cson
index 06e88a19a..07998b3cc 100644
--- a/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/Syntaxes/gfm.cson
+++ b/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/Syntaxes/gfm.cson
@@ -9,11 +9,11 @@
 ]
 'patterns': [
   {
-    'match': '\\*\\*.*\\*\\*'
+    'match': '\\*\\*[^\\*]+\\*\\*'
     'name': 'markup.bold.gfm'
   }
   {
-    'match': '\\*.*\\*'
+    'match': '\\*[^\\*]+\\*'
     'name': 'markup.italic.gfm'
   }
   {
diff --git a/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/spec/gfm-spec.coffee b/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/spec/gfm-spec.coffee
index 5e200c4b1..d19dd74d3 100644
--- a/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/spec/gfm-spec.coffee
+++ b/src/packages/gfm.tmbundle/spec/gfm-spec.coffee
@@ -14,12 +14,18 @@ describe "GitHub Flavored Markdown grammar", ->
     expect(grammar.scopeName).toBe "source.gfm"
 
   it "tokenizes **bold** text", ->
+    {tokens} = grammar.tokenizeLine("****")
+    expect(tokens[0]).toEqual value: "****", scopes: ["source.gfm"]
+
     {tokens} = grammar.tokenizeLine("this is **bold** text")
     expect(tokens[0]).toEqual value: "this is ", scopes: ["source.gfm"]
     expect(tokens[1]).toEqual value: "**bold**", scopes: ["source.gfm", "markup.bold.gfm"]
     expect(tokens[2]).toEqual value: " text", scopes: ["source.gfm"]
 
   it "tokenizes *italic* text", ->
+    {tokens} = grammar.tokenizeLine("**")
+    expect(tokens[0]).toEqual value: "**", scopes: ["source.gfm"]
+
     {tokens} = grammar.tokenizeLine("this is *italic* text")
     expect(tokens[0]).toEqual value: "this is ", scopes: ["source.gfm"]
     expect(tokens[1]).toEqual value: "*italic*", scopes: ["source.gfm", "markup.italic.gfm"]