Josh Arieh is one of the most successful poker players of all time, currently ranked 111th in career live tournament earnings, having cashed for $14,758,173 since 1999. His first recorded cash was also the first of his seven WSOP bracelets, winning a $3,000 Limit Hold’em event for $202,800.
Arieh nearly won poker’s biggest prize in 2004, the year following Chris Moneymaker’s title run. The Rochester, New York native finished third from the 2,576-player field, winning a career-high $2,500,000. Of course, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer took down the WSOP Main Event that year, defeating David Williams in heads-up play.
Josh Arieh’s biggest honor is his shocking 2021 WSOP Player of the Year win, when he won two bracelets and six top-10 finishes to beat Phil Hellmuth to the title.
With the new WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard race offering up $1,000,000 in prizes and encompassing all three WSOP live stops (Prague, Las Vegas, Bahamas), Arieh competed in his second-ever WSOP Europe trip (WSOPE London, 2008).
Arieh enjoyed five cashes from the 15 bracelet events, finishing in the top-50 in each cash. He even went on a super-deep run in the WSOP Europe Main Event, finishing 44th from the 2,617-entry field for €35,000.
Josh Arieh’s WSOP Player of the Year bid
With his five cashes, Arieh is currently 56th on the 2026 WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard with 529.38 points.
Shaun Deeb is in second with 1340.25 points, only behind the 1386.84 points of WSOP Europe Main Event champion Marius Kudzmanas.
He spoke to Jeff Platt about his Player of the Year intentions after his WSOP Europe Main Event run.
“It’s really cool what the World Series of Poker is doing now. When I won Player of the Year in 2021, I won $15,000, and that was only because there was a sponsor.
“Now with the new management of WSOP, they’re putting a million dollars back in. It’s really cool. It’s fun to chase, I’m a competitor, I’m going to compete until I die, and it’s cool being out here (Prague) trying to win something and trying to perform for me and my kids.”
Josh Arieh’s WSOP Europe results
| Event Name | Place | Cash | WSOP Points |
| €565 Colossus | 41st | €3,750 | 95.61 |
| €565 PLOssus Bounty | 22nd | €1,900 | 86.33 |
| €5,300 WSOP Europe Main Event | 44th | €35,000 | 151.67 |
| €2,200 Turbo Bounty | 39th | €3,830 | 79.89 |
| €1,500 European Circuit Championship | 43rd | €10,700 | 115.88 |
Josh Arieh on his WSOP Europe Main Event run
After his Day 4 run in the WSOP Europe Main Event came to an end, where he finished a very respectable 44th place, he spoke to WSOP’s Jeff Platt on the experience.
“It’s fun to feel something. It’s fun to get deep and get to play poker when it’s fun.
“This is the reason that I still play and fight through the Day 1s and the early stages… to get to the point in the tournament where your heart starts racing. It was fun, and I enjoyed it.”
He even discussed his run on the PokerNews Podcast with Chad Holloway, where he was notably annoyed with how his tournament ended in a hand against Annette Obrestad.
“The play is very aggressive. I’ve seen the weirdest hands, and it’s not like the old days where you got it in bad when you know you’re beat. Here, they’re sticking it in your face and seeing if you have the balls to call off.
“It’s fun, it raises your variance, which for me is great because I’ve run way ahead of variance my whole life.
He took a severe hit at one stage with just 69 players left with against for 3,500,000 when the blinds were at 25,000/50,000, when an unfortunate came on the river to put him into survival mode after cruising all day.
“It instantly brought me back to 2004, right before my Main Event run, it was the first big WPT Championship. Martin De Knijff won it. Going into Day 4, because you don’t get many Day 4s in your poker career, I’ve played poker for over 20 years and probably have less than ten Day 4s. So, on Day 4 of the WPT Championship, I was third in chips, Mohamed (Ibrahim) was the chip leader, and it was the same thing. Aces vs queens, queen of diamonds on the river.
“Such is life. My blessings are beyond… I’ve run way beyond my expectations in my poker career, and the only reason I’m at where I’m at is because of my timing. If I had come up these days, I wouldn’t be the player that I am. So, in bad times like that, I try to just think of the good.”
Josh Arieh went on to talk about his fatal hand against Annette Obrestad, where he ran his pocket sevens into her pocket eights blind-on-blind. He still has a ton of regret over how he played the hand and his lack of patience.
“I still had chips after that (AA<QQ), and I ended up building it back up to later punt it off to Annette (Obrestad). That bothered me a lot because I did what I used to do, and I would think too fast.
“I mean, number one, I misplayed the hand. I didn’t even give myself the chance to think it through. I mean, this hand, sevens vs. eights in the blinds, I should have thought longer. I had time banks for a reason. I raise 3.5x, and she snap-shoves for 30 big blinds, and before the dealer’s done counting, I think it’s high 20 blinds, and I call.
“There’s no reason not to think here. Whether I make another wrong decision… I’m totally fine with making wrong decisions. But at least I should have given myself a chance. The lesson learned is just to think it through.”
Josh Arieh’s seven WSOP bracelets
Josh Arieh won his seventh WSOP bracelet in the fall WSOP Online bracelet series, winning the $600 Ultra Deepstack for $67,656.60. It was the first time he had won a bracelet outside of a live Las Vegas event. It was also his first-ever No Limit Hold’em bracelet.
| Year | Event | Prize | Field |
| 1999 | $3,000 Limit Hold’em | $202,800 | 169 |
| 2005 | $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | $381,600 | 212 |
| 2021 | $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha | $204,766 | 821 |
| 2021 | $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship | $484,791 | 208 |
| 2023 | $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship | $316,226 | 134 |
| 2023 | $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. | $711,313 | 112 |
| 2025 | $600 Ultra Deepstack (Online) | $67,657 | 804 |
