Poker Profiles: Joe Hachem
Joseph Hachem, more popularly known as Joe in the Poker world, was born on November 3, 1966 in Lebanon. When he was about six years old, his family decided to moved to Australia and started to make a living there. He was once a chiropractor but was forced to give his career on the medical business due to a rare blood disorder.
Joe began his Poker career in 2002. With nothing else to do to earn a living, he turned his eyes to Poker to support his wife and his four children. He was going in and around casinos for sometime before he hit the Main Event's jackpot. Before the WSOP bracelet, however, Joe was able to pocket $25,850 at another World Series event.
The highlight of Joe's career is of course winning the World Series of Poker tournament in 2005, the dream of every Poker professional. Along with the distinctive bracelet, Joe also took home $7,500,000. He fared quite food enough in the following year but a consecutive bracelet win was out of reach. However, he made another big win at another tournament, 2006 World Poker Tour, where he won $2,207,575 more.
Joe's cash winnings exceeded the $10 million mark in 2007, garnering him a distinction of being the second biggest winner in Poker history next to the legendary Jamie Gold. Aside from consistently appearing at every final table, Joe has also signed up to PokerStars.com and played along with Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer as part of the Team PokerStars.
Winning time for Joe is the time when it was his turn to strike. He was a patient player all through out who never tire waiting for his turn to shine. At the 2005 WSOP for example, where he beat 5618 players for the pot, he never had a chip lead until it was just him, Andrew Black, and Steve Dannenmann on the table. Although he is now part of PokerStars.com, he did not enter the WSOP Main Event through the site. He was one of the entrants that paid the $10,000 buy-in in full. In the end, his investment proved to be worthy by turning in serious stash of cash. Although the $7.5 pot money changed his and his family's life forever, Joe does not see himself stopping anytime soon. He is enjoying his stint as a Poker star and will surely continue rounding the circuit. Only this time, he is already a distinguished and respectable gentleman in the Poker world.
