Josh Arieh is an American poker player and five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner.
He can be seen on the first season of GGPoker's Game of Gold, a poker reality competition on the GGPoker YouTube channel.
In 2021, he won the WSOP Player of the Year title after cashing eleven times and winning two bracelets for combined cashes of over $1.1 million.
Poker Achievements
Arieh's first recorded cash was a bracelet at the 1999 World Series of Poker, winning a $3,000 Limit Hold'em event for $202,800. He followed that up one year later by almost winning another bracelet, but came up just short finishing second in a $1,570 Pot-Limit Omaha event.
The largest cash of Arieh's career came in 2004, when he finished third behind Greg Raymer and David Williams in the 2004 WSOP Main Event. He took home $2,500,000 in winnings.
His second bracelet came the following year in a $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $381,600. In 2009, Arieh finished second in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $952,290.
Arieh would cash at the WSOP on numerous occasions during the 2010s, making several final tables but falling just short of picking up another title.
A second-place finish in the 2019 $50,000 Poker Players Championship proved that he was a player to contend for major honours once again, and when the WSOP returned in 2021 he quickly showed that was to be the case. He picked up two bracelets and won the Player of the Year title, pipping Phil Hellmuth into second place.
"It’s just really cool, it’s weird," Arieh told PokerNews about his run to WSOP Player of the Year. "My whole life and my career, whatever I do, I build momentum, so when I’m going good, I’m really good. When I’m going bad, I go really bad. It means a lot because my daughters will be really proud."
His third bracelet came in Event #39: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, with his fourth coming less than two weeks later in Event #66: $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Championship.
In 2023, Arieh picked up a fifth bracelet with a comeback win in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship. The victory was a big step towards Hall of Fame consideration for Arieh.
"So this is just another step that will give me a chance to maybe be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Poker players were looked at as these backroom hustlers. Like, oh, you're a poker player, you're a bad person. You gamble for a living; how do you do that? I've said it before; it just gives it a little validity. And to be thought about, the names of people that are one, it would just be insane."
He followed this up with an appearance on the first season of Game of Gold in November of the same year.
WSOP Player of the Year Winners
| Year | Player | Bracelets | Cashes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Daniel Negreanu | 1 | $346,280 |
| 2005 | Allen Cunningham | 1 | $1,007,115 |
| 2006 | Jeff Madsen | 2 | $1,467,852 |
| 2007 | Tom Schneider | 2 | $416,829 |
| 2008 | Erick Lindgren | 1 | $1,358,528 |
| 2009 | Jeff Lisandro | 3 | $807,521 |
| 2010 | Frank Kassela | 2 | $1,255,314 |
| 2011 | Ben Lamb | 1 | $5,352,970 |
| 2012 | Greg Merson | 2 | $9,785,354 |
| 2013 | Daniel Negreanu | 2 | $1,954,054 |
| 2014 | George Danzer | 3 | $878,933 |
| 2015 | Mike Gorodinsky | 1 | $1,766,487 |
| 2016 | Jason Mercier | 2 | $960,424 |
| 2017 | Chris Ferguson | 1 | $428,423 |
| 2018 | Shaun Deeb | 2 | $2,545,623 |
| 2019 | Robert Campbell | 2 | $750,844 |
| 2020 | Not awarded | ||
| 2021 | Josh Arieh | 2 | $1,194,061 |
