Joseph Hachem was born in the country of Lebanon, but his family moved to Australia when he was twelve. He currently lives in a suburb of Melbourne called West Preston with his wife and four kids, and he was once a chiropractor. In 2005, he made it through a field of 5,619 to win the WSOP no-limit hold 'em championship, along with $7.5 million. In 2006, he won the WPT 5 Diamond Classic, winning over two million dollars and becoming only the fourth player ever to win events in both the WPT and the WSOP.

2005 was the first year Joe Hachem entered the WSOP, but he has been a professional poker player for more than a decade. Besides winning the WSOP main event, he also placed tenth in 2005's no-limit hold 'em event. In 2006, he made the final table at two smaller WSOP hold 'em events, finishing second in one and fourth in the other.

About that win, Hachem said that a million dollars would change his life, let alone 7.5 million. He just wanted the bracelet that comes with winning a WSOP event. He said that he'd never entered the World Series of Poker before because he wanted to wait until his children got older.