Joe Hachem has won more money in a single poker tournament than most players could dream of earning in a lifetime.
Twenty-one years after collecting $7.5 million at the World Series of Poker, the Australian legend is still turning up at Crown Melbourne, competing against familiar faces and occasionally reminding everyone that he knows his way around a poker table.
His latest victory came in the A$1,250 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event at the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship. Hachem defeated a 48-entry field to collect A$16,000 and another tournament title, with Chi Troung finishing runner-up for A$10,300.
The money is relatively small by Hachem’s standards, but winning a specialist poker format at the casino where he developed his game is a fitting way to add another result to a career that started making international headlines back in 2005.
Joe Hachem Takes Down Melbourne Omaha Event
The tournament attracted 48 entries, generating A$51,600 in prize money, with eight players making the money. Hachem eventually found himself heads-up against Chi Troung and finished the job to secure the top prize. The final table also featured Australian poker veteran Billy “The Croc” Argyros, who finished seventh for A$3,100. Jim Chahoud collected A$4,100 for fifth place, while Perry Jeffs completed the podium in third.
Victorian Poker Championship Event #9 Results
| Place | Player | Prize (AUD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Hachem | A$16,000 |
| 2 | Chi Troung | A$10,300 |
| 3 | Perry Jeffs | A$6,700 |
| 4 | Michal Jalc | A$5,200 |
| 5 | Jim Chahoud | A$4,100 |
| 6 | Simon Chahine | A$3,600 |
| 7 | Billy Argyros | A$3,100 |
| 8 | Benjamin Pockett | A$2,600 |
There is something particularly satisfying about Hachem winning this specific format. Omaha Hi-Lo is a game where reading the board correctly is only half the battle. Players must also understand which hands can win the low half of the pot, when they risk being quartered and how to build pots when they can scoop both halves.
Fixed-limit betting also changes the calculations considerably compared with the no-limit hold’em tournaments most recreational players know. Mixed-game specialists such as Benny Glaser have built careers mastering these formats, while Joao Vieira’s recent PLO8 world championship showed how competitive the split-pot games remain at the highest levels.
The $7.5 Million Win That Changed Australian Poker
To understand Hachem’s place in Australian poker, you have to go back to July 2005. The Melbourne player arrived at the WSOP during a period when poker was still enjoying the extraordinary growth that followed Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 Main Event victory. Hachem entered the $10,000 Main Event alongside 5,618 other hopefuls and outlasted every one of them. His final opponent was Steve Dannenmann, and the winning hand became part of poker television history when Hachem flopped a straight holding seven-three against Dannenmann’s ace-three.
The $7.5 million first prize was enormous, but the cultural impact was arguably just as important. Australians had one of their own at the top of the poker world, with his supporters chanting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!” as the final table unfolded.
Speaking immediately after that victory, Hachem explained what the money meant to him:
“It changes everything. I can look after my family, my mum, my kids.”
That line perhaps explains more about Hachem than the enormous payout. His success brought international recognition, but the importance he placed on his family remained a consistent theme throughout his career.
What Did Joe Hachem Do After Winning the WSOP?
One of the more impressive parts of Hachem’s career came just 17 months after his Main Event breakthrough. Rather than becoming another former world champion living off one extraordinary result, he won the 2006 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio for another $2,182,075. That victory established him as a champion on both the WSOP and WPT stages. It also pushed his recorded tournament winnings beyond $10 million, a milestone very few players had reached at the time.
Hachem went on to represent PokerStars, traveled internationally as a professional player and helped introduce poker to a much wider Australian audience. He also published his autobiography, Pass the Sugar, in 2009, using the catchphrase associated with his famous WSOP run.
He never disappeared from tournament poker, although he eventually became far more selective about the events he entered. His recent results include a 50th-place finish in the 2026 Aussie Millions Main Event and another cash in the 2026 WSOP Main Event.
His son Daniel has also developed his own tournament career, reaching Day 5 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event after previously finishing 79th in 2019. For the Hachem family, poker has become considerably more than one extraordinary fortnight in Las Vegas.
Joe Hachem’s Poker Career in Numbers
| Career statistic | Record |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| WSOP bracelets | 1 |
| WSOP Main Event victory | 2005 |
| Main Event winning prize | US$7,500,000 |
| WPT titles | 1 |
| 2006 WPT Five Diamond prize | US$2,182,075 |
| Recorded live tournament earnings | Over US$13.1 million |
| Australian all-time money list | 3rd |
| Australian WSOP earnings list | 1st |
| Latest Victorian Championship win | A$16,000 |
Career figures are based on recorded live results and rankings available in October 2026. Tournament earnings are gross cashes, not net profits.
Interestingly, Hachem remains Australia’s third-highest recorded live tournament earner, behind Kahle Burns and Michael Addamo, who recently returned to online poker with a GGMillion$ victory.
It is a remarkable position considering how much the game has changed. High-roller tournaments now regularly award seven-figure prizes, and today’s leading professionals compete in an environment dominated by solvers, extensive database analysis and increasingly sophisticated preparation.
Hachem Knows Poker Has Changed
Hachem has never pretended that being a world champion in 2005 automatically makes him one of the strongest players in 2026. In a March interview, he acknowledged that today’s elite high-stakes tournament professionals operate at a level he has no intention of trying to match. He also made it clear that he still believes he has an advantage in the tournaments he chooses to enter. His experience at the table, ability to read opponents and comfort in live poker remain important parts of his approach.
His description of his place in the modern game was refreshingly relaxed:
“Let the young people enjoy it… I’m happy to be the godfather.”
It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate description. Hachem no longer needs to spend every week traveling between tournament stops, but he remains closely associated with poker in Australia and still appears capable of taking down the occasional event.
Another Joe Hachem Event Is Coming
The Victorian Poker Championship continues at Crown Melbourne through October 27, with its A$2,500 Main Event and A$10,600 Super High Roller still on the schedule.
There is also a particularly appropriate tournament waiting on October 25. The A$2,000 Joe Hachem Special Feature Event is scheduled to begin that Sunday, giving players another opportunity to compete during a festival that continues to celebrate his contribution to Australian poker.
For somebody who started playing at Crown long before he became a household name, it is a pleasing development. Hachem has a tournament named in his honor, a career that has survived several generations of poker strategy and, as he demonstrated this week, enough competitive instinct left to win another trophy. Twenty-one years after his most famous victory, Joe Hachem is still passing the sugar.
