Joe
Hachem
is a native of Lebanon who moved to Australia with his family in
1972. He was working as a chiropractor (a
person skilled in a particular type of therapy)
but due to a blood disorder,
he gave up his career and started playing poker.
Before he go all-in at WSOP, Joe
Hachem was
not one of the thousands of online qualifiers - he bought into the
event directly. He also cashed earlier in the series, closely 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
Hachem
has stayed true to his family values ever since, and he is considered
one of the “Best
Ambassadors for Poker” there
has ever been. He then recognized win was his $25,850 in the $1,000
buy-in No Limit Hold’em WSOP
event
where he got the 10th position.
In
2005, He won the 2005 World Series of Poker) $10,000 no limit Texas
Hold'em Main Event beating 5,618 poker
pros
and he won $7,500,000. He was playing on a short stack until there
were only 3 poker players on the table. To everyone’s surprise,
Hachem called for a pre-flop raise from $300,000 to $700,000 with his
7C 3S.
And the flop cards were 6H
5D 4D
giving him a straight.
Moreover,
Joe
Hachem 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 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.
Joe
Hachem plays online poker
only at one place – PokerStars.
Like
Chris Moneymaker
and Greg
Raymer,
Joe Hachem acts as a spokesperson for the PokerStars online
poker room,
where he plays often. However, unlike the other two, Joe did not
qualify for his victorious Main Event on the Internet, but instead
paid the full $10,000 buy-in. He definitely got a good return on his
investment.
"A
million dollars changes my life, let alone $7.5 million, it changes
everything. I can look after my family, my mum, my kids." –
Jowe Hachem
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