Champion of Poker

Josh Arieh started his poker career as an aside to playing pool. After the games would finish, he would many times go back to play poker with them. He soon discovered that poker was insanely profitably and so he started working on his game. Soon he started hosting his own games and then moved on to casino poker when he was old enough.

Most of Arieh’s professional success has come at the World Series of Poker. He has two WSOP bracelets to his credit. The first came in 1999 when he won the $3,000 Limit Holdem event outlasting Humberto Brenes heads up to take home the title. This would net Arieh $202,800 and get him started on his career. A year later, he nearly won his 2nd WSOP bracelet but fell just short in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. Of course, the winner was no slouch as Johnny Chan was the player that took down the event.

Arieh is known best for his run in the 2004 World Series of Poker. He was portrayed as the villain of the event, constantly running his mouth about other players play and doing whatever he could to get into their heads. Some of this comments were over the top, including the famous “Bust this Motherfu**er” comment that he told David Williams after Arieh was eliminated in 3rd place. Greg Raymer would go on to win the event but Arieh’s reputation was made. Arieh would later admit that it was not his intent to be the villain of the event, but his style is such as to where he will do whatever he can get away with to take his opponent’s chips.

Arieh would come back and do what neither of his final two tablemates from the 2004 WSOP has been able to do, win a 2nd WSOP bracelet. Arieh took down the $2,000 Pot Limit Omaha bracelet after a heads-up match with Chris Ferguson where Arieh was considered the underdog. The win solidified his place in the poker world and put him soundly on the map as a player.

Outside of his WSOP victories, Arieh has a couple other victories to his credit. He won the Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker Tournament in 2006 for $500,000. He also took the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the Wynn Classic in 2008. Arieh also has five cashes on the World Poker Tour with one final table at the 2004 Borgata Poker Open. He finished 3rd in the event.

Outside of the poker table Arieh enjoys to play golf and spend time with his wife and three children. He told Phil Gordon on his radio show that he is not as good as a poker player as he is given credit to being, but he has excellent money management skills that allow him to be as successful as he has been. At one point he was sponsored with Bodog but was released and moved on to play with Full Tilt Poker.

Whether you love or hate Josh Arieh, you must respect his ability at the poker table. His two bracelets and over $4.6 Million in earning have him among the elite in poker. At just 34, Arieh will be brining his style of poker to the tables for a long time. Expect to continue to see great things from this champion of poker.