Joe Hachem

Many people think that the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event was the beginning for Joe Hachem, but that isn’t the case. Joe was not one of the thousands of online qualifiers - he bought into the event directly. He also cashed earlier in the series, narrowly missing a final table appearance. As a regular at events in his home card room, the Crown Casino in Melbourne, he already knew his way around a poker tournament and his big score came as no surprise to those that know him. A lot of things changed with that win, but Joe has stayed true to his family values ever since, and he is considered one of the best ambassadors for poker there has ever been.

Joe and his family moved from Lebanon to settle in Australia in the 1970s, and Joe built a successful business as a chiropractor in the cosmopolitan city of Melbourne. Already a social player, he began to play tournaments at the Crown and success led him to start dreaming of the big time. His shot at the big time came when he was in Las Vegas for the 2005 WSOP. He originally didn’t want to make the trip and leave his young family at home, but his wife urged him to go. Once in Vegas, friends talked him into entering the biggest tournament in the world. He went on to beat a field of 5,619 players and claim $7,500,000 in prize money – the biggest ever poker tournament cash at that time. With that huge sum of money came the title of World Champion and Hachem was instrumental in evolving the role of World Champion into a highly visible global ambassador for the game.

To prove that result was not a one-off, Joe went agonizingly close to winning a second World Series bracelet in 2006, when he finished runner-up in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event for $256,800. Thanks to Hachem’s competitive nature he regarded that result as a failure, and he continued to pursue the big win that would underline his live poker credentials. He didn’t have long to wait. In December 2006 he beat a strong field packed with pros to take down the Five Diamond World Classic, good for $2,207,575, but more importantly a victory in another of the world’s most prestigious poker tournaments.

When he’s not travelling the world promoting the game and PokerStars, Joe is a big family man and loves nothing better than spending time with his wife and four kids. He’s also a keen golfer and gets out on the fairways whenever he can.