World Champ Joe Hachem Talks WSOP, Poker Today, & the One Title He Still Wants
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“Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, buddy!” laughs a fist-pumping Joe Hachem. It's a line still familiar to poker fans everywhere.
More than 20 years have passed since the man from Down Under earned his place among poker's immortal few by winning the 2005 WSOP Main Event, yet memories of that electric night at Binion’s remain as vivid as ever.
Hachem's was a victory that helped define a golden era. Riding the shockwaves of the Chris Moneymaker-inspired Poker Boom, another charismatic, relatable world champion had emerged — the first, and still only, Australian to win the game's greatest prize.
If poker fans could borrow Doc Brown’s DeLorean for a night, there's no doubt July 16, 2005 would be a popular destination.
However, sweet as nostalgia can be, Hachem's focus is firmly on the road ahead. The Aussie Millions is finally returning in April after a 6-year hiatus, and Hachem— the Godfather of Australian poker — couldn’t be more excited for the grand homecoming.
Catching up with PokerNews, the former world champion reflected on two decades in the spotlight, his strong views on the 'poker owes me nothing' crowd, family, legacy, and a burning desire to 'pass the sugar' once again in Melbourne next month.
The Low-Volume Godfather
Plenty has changed in poker over the past two decades, but for Hachem, who in the last year alone has cashed at WSOP Paradise, the WPT World Championship, and the WSOP Circuit, making deep runs remains a constant.
“There's no way that the way we thought about poker 20 years ago would survive in today's environment,” he reflects on the game in 2026. “Anybody who was playing back then and is still playing today is a better player. Otherwise, they would not still be here.”
“I won’t be playing any super high-stakes crusher tournaments,” he admits. "Would I go play the Triton series? No, unless someone put me in. But I'm not putting up my own money to play in those sorts of things because I'd just get crushed. Those guys are just too good, you know, end of story."
“Let the young people enjoy it… I’m happy to be the godfather."
Despite a low-volume approach, Hachem remains one of the most consistent performers in poker over the last 20 years. “The way I rationalize it,” he explains, “is that in the tournaments I am playing, the larger-field ones, I still reckon I’ve got a decent enough edge. I still believe my live play reads and the way I handle myself at a table serve me well.”
So, will we see him spending hours running GTO sims to keep tuned? Not likely. Instead, the sharpest analysis comes at home from Hachem's own son.
“Every hand I play, he puts it through a friggin' simulator,” he laughs. “‘Dad, you should have done this, your bet sizing was off, you should have called here.’ I just say, ‘Alright, good on you. What do you want me to do?’”
“My game is always just solid… I don’t put any real time into it, I don’t play that much,” he adds. “Let the young people enjoy it… I’m happy to be the godfather type thing. Show up, crack a few skulls, go home.”
That Life-Changing Night in 2005
After more than two decades in the spotlight since his Main Event win, anyone could forgive Hachem if there were a fatigue at being asked to relive past glories, but there's not a hint of that as he looks back at 2005.
"I’m a very grateful person,” he says. “I reflect a lot and think about my life. Quite often, I’m saying to myself, I had a good life before I won the World Series. I was reasonably successful. I loved my wife, loved my kids, had a great family. We lived a modest life, but it was okay.”
Few will ever understand how it feels to ascend poker’s steepest summit, and Hachem admits he still finds it “surreal” even now.
“The things that have happened since I won, how my life changed because I won a poker tournament, it’s incredible. Almost every day, something happens that’s a direct result of me being Joe Hachem, the World Series of Poker champion 20 years ago. Someone high-profile wants to meet me, someone wants to do business with me. Obviously, I’m very grateful for that,” he says.
"Almost every day, something happens that's a direct result of me being Joe Hachem, the World Series of Poker champion."
“I give myself a tap on the back because I think I’ve handled myself in a way to allow that to happen," he remarks. "Your notoriety gets you so far, but you have to be accountable for your own actions and your own behaviour and who you are as a man.”
In the wave of articles and news bulletins that followed that final night at Binion’s, the poker world came to know Hachem as a family man. The man who sought permission from his wife to even attend the Series in the first place, who stoked the BBQ at home in Melbourne, who hosted poker nights with his mates. That remains the same.
“The core didn’t change because it’s still family, close friends," he says. "I’ve probably made 10 really good friends over the course of 20 years post that. The majority of the rest of my family and friends are still there."
"On Monday night, we had dinner at my house with everybody here. My children were all there with their spouses and girlfriends, and my nephews were there with their wives and the kids. There are 20 to 30 people here every Monday night for dinner. And having everyone here with all the mayhem, that's my proudest moment every week," he beams.
A Debt to the Game
Hachem is also acutely aware of the ambassadorial role that comes with being a WSOP Main Event champion, particularly as the first from his beloved Australia — and he's not shy about the scale of his victory's impact.
"I ignited the poker boom in Australia," he states plainly. "When I left Melbourne, there was one poker room in Australia, it was in Melbourne at the Crown Casino, and we would have had 17 tables. After my victory, it got up to 200 tables. Every state in Australia had at least one poker room."
"If it were anybody else, it would have been the same thing. I just happened to be the guy," he adds. And while it's a humble assessment of his own role in that chain reaction, it hasn't stopped him from embracing his position as the face of Australian poker with anything less than total conviction.
"It's a serious thing for me, being an ambassador for a game that I love and a country that I love," says Hachem. "I've tried to represent the game as best as I can and represent Australian poker as best as I can. Whenever I need to be on as an ambassador, I take it very seriously."
"No one's forcing you to represent the game, but don't talk nonsense."
He's also not shy about holding others to that same standard, too. "No one's forcing you to represent the game," he says. "But don't talk nonsense. Just say it's not your thing, you don't really want to be in the limelight. That's fine."
Where his patience runs out, he makes clear, is with those he calls the "poker owes me nothing" crowd.
"I get quite offended when people say that," he fires back. "Yes, you paid for your entries and did this and did that. But without the collective of the poker force, we could never have gotten those prize pools. Without all these different organizations coming together and hyping poker up, even though they were doing it for their own personal reasons, it doesn't matter. The collective result is that I'm still being interviewed 20 years later."
"For people to not acknowledge and appreciate that," he says, "it doesn't sit well with me. I've made it public before and I'm happy to stand by that."
"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" Millions
For all his reflections on the past, it's the immediate future that has Hachem buzzing right now. The Aussie Millions is returning to Melbourne's Crown Casino on April 24th after a six-year break, and his excitement is barely containable.
"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, buddy, that's all I can say about Aussie Millions," he grins. "Thank God it's back, we've missed it. Melbourne's had a bit of a terrible run since COVID, with Aussie Millions going away and Crown Casino changing hands. But the new team in there now is really dedicated to bringing poker back."
When the organizers came calling late last year, Hachem didn't need much convincing, saying, "When they reached out and said they wanted to do Aussie Millions and would like me to be involved, I just jumped at it 100%."
"There's only one thing left for me to win and that's the Aussie Millions."
However, for anyone thinking of making the trip Down Under to play, Hachem offers a word of warning, saying, "You've got to be very careful if you decide to come to Australia, because once you come here and experience this, you're going to be hooked forever," he laughs.
"Just ask anybody who's been here. The first thing they want to do is come back. Crown Casino is an amazing complex, but you should leave it because Melbourne has some of the best restaurants in the world. The weather at that time of year is going to be spectacular, theatre, sports, and the poker is excellent. It's a one-stop shop. A poker player's paradise."
And as for his own ambitions at this year's series, you best believe there's a desire to 'pass the sugar' once again. "There's only one thing left for me to win and that's the Aussie Millions," he says. "That's the only thing I want to win. I've got my bracelet, I've got my WPT title."
Hachem stops short of calling it a farewell, but the sentiment is clear: "If the final thing for me was to win the Aussie Millions trophy, it would be a great ending to my career."
Aussie Millions 2026 Full Schedule - April 24-May 10
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