Joe Hachem

Joe Hachem was born in Lebanon and moved to Melbourne, Australia during the 1970's. Once there, he established a chiropodist practice in Melbourne and at the same time he was also a social poker player. Joe Hachem often played at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. It was here that he gathered experience in live poker tournaments before traveling to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker tournament in 2005. At this tournament, Joe Hachem made a name for himself in the global poker field by winning the main event and becoming a world champion. Today, Joe Hachem is ranked as the Australian poker player with the highest earnings.

Joe Hachem at the World Series of Poker (WSOP)

Unlike thousands of other poker players from different places around the world who won seats at the WSOP via online tournaments, Joe Hachem paid a $10,000 buy-in to enter the tournament. He beat the other 5,619 competitors to win the 2005 WSOP main event and earned a WSOP bracelet. He also won a massive $ 7,500,000 for his efforts and become world champion. Although larger amounts have been won since then, at the time of his WSOP win, this was the largest cash winnings for such a tournament.

Just a couple of weeks prior to the making the big win at the main event, he also cashed in at the same WSOP tournament at the $1,000 No Limit Hold'Em event. At this event he finished in 19th place and won $25,850 in prize money.

Joe Hachem: Other Career Highlights

Taking a glance at Joe Hachem's career highlights, it is clear that winning the WSOP main event was not a one off success. Out of the various tournaments in which Joe Hachem has participated, he has made significant cash winnings. Among his notable achievements in his career is the WSOP tournament in 2006, when he finished in 2nd place at the $2,500 No Limit event and won $256,800 in the process. At this time, he came close to earning a second WSOP bracelet but finished as runner up. Later on during the year of 2006, he became the winner of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Classic and came away with the considerable sum of $2,207,575. In 2007, Hachem came first in NBC's Poker After Dark tournament, World Series of Poker Champions II and he won $120,000. More big winnings followed and in April 2008 at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final he came in 11th place and earned $161,191.

When playing online poker, he can be found at PokerStars. He contributes articles to the PokerStars site and has become an ambassador for the game of poker. He also travels around the world and participates in various PokerStars events as a part of Team PokerStars Pro. Apart from the time involved in traveling to poker events around the world, Hachem is a proud family man. Aside from the poker arena, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four children and playing golf.