Poker Player Profile – Joe Hachem Poker Player

Poker player Joe Hachem took to professional poker after giving up practice as a chiropractor. He immediately won the WSOP 2005 Main Event.

Entry To Poker

JJoe Hachem moved from Lebanon to Australia in 1972, when he was six years old. He had started playing poker at the age of 10 years and has been playing for most of his adult life and more so since the mid 1990s. However, professionally Hachem was a chiropractor. Around 2000 Hachem developed a rare blood disorder that made it impossible for him to use his hands at his job and he had to give it up. He began to play poker online in a semi professional way. He also played live poker at The Crown Casino in Melbourne. He went to Las Vegas in 2005 to participate in WSOP and the rest is history.

Live Poker Tournaments

In WSOP 2005 Hachem cashed in a side event and that provided his $10,000 entry fee for the Main Event. In the Main Event he beat poker player Steve Dannenmann for the $7.5 million prize and the coveted bracelet. He was the first Australian to win the event and was cheered throughout by Australian fans. In the Main Event he was the last champion standing. Hachem returned to WSOP 2006 and well with several cashes. In December 2006 Hachem won his first WPT title at the Bellagio Casino’s Five Diamonds Poker Classic. Today he is one of only five poker professionals to have won the WSOP Main Event and a WPT title. He has acquitted himself in many other live poker tournaments. Hachem’s total live tournament earnings are about $10.6 million. He has had 2 first place finishes and 32 cashes.

Hachem regularly participates on poker television. He has won “World Series of Poker Champions II”, an event in which all the poker players are WSOP Main Event winners, on Poker After Dark. He has also featured in High Stakes Poker. Hachem’s favorite poker game is Texas Hold’em.

Online Poker

Hachem cemented his relationship with PokerStars by signing up for Team PokerStars Pro. He plays online poker at the PokerStars online poker room under the alias ‘JoeHachem’. Though he has not made the same kind of news for his online poker as he has in live poker tournaments, PokerStars is appreciative of his efforts. They say “We’re not ashamed to say he’s our favorite poker player and we’re always rooting for him in any event he plays.”

Other Poker Achievements

In his younger days Hachem used to play the Manila version of poker. He switched to Texas Hold’em and began to play poker seriously after being inspired by the movie “Rounders”. A documentary based on Hachem’s WSOP win is being made by Gil Cates, the director of the poker movie Deal. It is called “Pass The Sugar”, a phrase Hachem routinely uses after winning a pot.

Hachem is an Australian and lives in Melbourne with his wife and four children. He says, “Nothing is more important than family … Loving and supporting them has always been and will always be my main objective.” His other interests include playing golf, watching movies, eating out and smoking a good cigar in a bar.