Joseph Hachem rocketed to fame in 2005 with his win over the largest WSOP field in history, a win which earned him the biggest payout in any poker event ever.
Beating 5619 players to the title, Joe Hachem earned $7.5 million, making him the highest earning tournament player of all time – with just one win to his name.
Unlike the WSOP’s previous two winners, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem did not qualify online for the event; instead he paid the full $10,000 buy-in – the best $10,000 he’s ever spent. However like Moneymaker and Raymer, Hachem has signed up to be a spokesperson for PokerStars.com.
Background
Joe Hachem is a native of Lebanon, but moved to Australia in 1972 with his wife and four children, setting up home in Melbourne. Hachem worked as a chiropractor for much of his time in Australia, but eventually had to give that up in 2002 after developing a rare blood disorder in his hands.
It was at this point that Hachem began to play poker seriously, starting in his local casinos, before taking up online play. Hachem says that he only started to develop as a poker player after he learned to control his temper, saying that the Lebanese in him means he is naturally very emotional.
By the time the WSOP came around Hachem had obviously got his emotions in check, and had been playing professionally for some time, albeit with only modest tournament success.
The Event
According to PokerStars.com, Hachem only decided to play in the WSOP after a friend of his won a seat there in a PokerStars online qualifier. Unable to qualify online, Hachem coughed up the $10,000 buy-in himself, and hoped for the best.
To some extent Hachem rode his luck in the 2005 WSOP, surviving an all-in on the bubble and arriving at the final table with one of the shortest stacks. But his victory was far from lucky.
Hachem’s roll towards the top spot began with a perilous all-in on the final table: with his stack dwindling Hachem decided it was time to take a stand against Aaron Kanter, who had been raising and re-raising him since the beginning of the day. With Q-7 he was all-in against Kanter’s 9-9, and looked in trouble, until the flop brought a queen, and no nine was forthcoming for Kanter. From then on Hachem was flying.
With a sizeable and vocal contingent of Aussies supporting him with shouts of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi,” Hachem marched towards the finishing line with purpose, building up a chip lead which he carried through to the heads-up stage against Steve Dannenmann.
The Winning Hand
With blinds at $150,000 to $300,000 Steve Dannenmann, holding Ad-3c, makes it $700,000 to go from the small blind; Hachem, seeing value and deciding to take a risk, calls with 7c-3s (one of the worst starting hands in poker).
His loose call is immediately rewarded and some, when the flop comes 4d-5d-6h, giving Hachem the straight, while giving Dannenmann an open-ended straight draw. Hachem checks from first position, and then Dannenmann bets a $700,000. Hachem re-raises to $1,700,000 and Dannenmann calls.
The turn card, the As, is a killer card for Dannenmann as it gives him top pair to go with his open ended straight draw. But it’s Hachem to bet first, and he doesn’t hang about, firing $2 million into the pot. Dannenmann quickly re-raises to $5 million, and then after a short time in the tank Hachem moves all-in. Dannenmann calls without hesitation.
When the cards are turned over Dannenmann’s dire predicament is clear for all to see - there is no way he can win the pot. The best he can hope for is to catch one of three remaining sevens in the deck for a split pot. But the river, the 4 of clubs, was no help, and Hachem was the Champion.
Ps: even for second place Dannenmann became the third highest paid player in WSOP history, winning more money than Chris Moneymaker did for his victory in 2003.