Josh Arieh captured his seventh WSOP bracelet this week — quietly by most standards — but his ‘poker coach’ and wife, Rachel, made sure it didn’t go unnoticed.
Minutes after Arieh’s first online gold, she launched a proud 'wifey PSA' on X, marking the end of what she jokingly referred to as Josh’s runner-up curse (Arieh has finished second in six WSOP events, including the $50K Poker Players Championship in 2019).
Seven was the lucky number as Arieh won after firing seven bullets in the WSOP.com $500 NLH event for the curse-smashing #7 bracelet and $67,656.
21 years of winning for Arieh
It’s hard to believe 21 years have passed since Arieh fell a hair's breadth short of poker immortality with a third-place finish for $2,500,000 at the 2004 WSOP Main Event, one year removed from the explosion of the Moneymaker effect.
Two decades later, Arieh has not only outlasted the boom but has also been one of the most consistent and solid players throughout it – without using a solver.
"I don't know how to put it, but NLH really intrigues me because I don't look at solvers,” Arieh says. “I understand that learning from a solver is the right way — 100% the correct way. But I don’t love poker enough to spend eight hours a day studying, then three hours with a study group, and then play. I just don’t enjoy it that much."
We caught up with Arieh to talk about his latest bracelet, online vs live wins, his take on solvers — and why he still prefers doing it his way.
'Only nine people on earth have more bracelets than me'
This was your first online bracelet win. How did it feel?
It's different. The feeling of an online bracelet and a live bracelet is just different. It's still a cool accomplishment, though.
When you finish and win a live bracelet, it's like this huge relief. Everything is off your shoulders. The stress is gone. The anxiety is gone. However, when the online event was over, it was really fun. I don't know how else to put it. The stress of a live WSOP tournament is just there, and the two don't even compare.
Some players have said that a bracelet has lost its luster and its real meaning, with so many given out these days. What’s your response to that chatter?
Come on. Just look at the number of poker players now. Back in the day, there were 30 events, 30 bracelets every year, and there might be a thousand people attending those 30 events.
Over 60,000 unique players attended the World Series of Poker this past year. Why can't the World Series go global with more bracelets? What is so wrong with there being 200 or 300 bracelets? There are definitely a hundred times more poker players than there were 20 years ago. So why should there only be 30 bracelets every year?
And if everybody just continues to talk about there's a bracelet for this, there's a bracelet for that, you can get one in a Cracker Jack box. So why are there only nine people on earth with more bracelets than me?
Why doesn't everybody have 10 bracelets? I don't know. Some people say a bracelet doesn't mean shit. There are so many out there to win. Then why doesn't everybody have them? That's the f*****g thing.
Norman Chad tweeted, 'Seven bullets for a seventh bracelet. Tournament poker is a competitive travesty.' He didn’t single you out — he’s criticized other online bracelet winners like Maria Konnikova too — but what did you make of that?
Norman Chad is a f*****g idiot. I've been living rent-free in his head for 20 years. It goes back to 2004 when he bashed me non-stop during the Main Event broadcast. Everything that comes out of Norm’s mouth is negative. He never has anything good to say about poker — it’s always complain, complain, complain.
'I really want success all around me'
Do you feel more competitive when it comes to your friends who are part of Team Lucky — Shaun Deeb, and Matt Glantz?
They're my peers that I respect immensely. I gain so much from everybody around me. I try to be a sponge. I'm surrounded by some of the world's most skilled poker players. And not just in my friend groups, but also with the people I deal with on my PokerStake site.
These brilliant poker minds surround me. I try to absorb absolutely everything I can. And it's an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Shaun. He is quite possibly the greatest poker mind of our generation. The hand histories that Shaun puts together and explains are phenomenal.
I'm sure you were happy to see Shaun win his eighth bracelet at the WSOPE last week.
I didn't even know the WSOPE was going on until Matt (Glantz) told me he was at a final table. We are always competitive, but most of all, we support each other on an ongoing basis. I really want success all around me, because success rubs off. I don't sit here and listen to bad beat stories. I don't dwell on negative stuff because witnessing and encouraging success is the best way for me to have it for myself.
How do you feel about solvers?
I've had a pretty successful life as a gambler and poker player. That’s what keeps me ticking—not memorizing every possible situation at the table.
There was one thing Nik Airball came up with, which is absolutely amazing. And perhaps somebody might've said it before him, but he's the first person to consider himself an artist in poker because he paints in the game his own way.
I feel that's what intrigues me in the game: applying my own approach to my craft. There might come a day when I want to sit down with the solver and learn how to play the correct way, the most profitable way. But until then, I'm fine picking up scraps and not winning that much at NLH. But when I do win, I created it; I made that happen.
Can you share any news on what’s happening on PokerStake.com?
We're running a really cool promotion where any WSOP Circuit ring winner who has won the $5,000 package at Paradise, can post half of their main event action on the PokerStake site. And if it doesn't sell out, we will buy it all. We ran a similar promotion last year.
Arieh owns PokerStake, where players can get staked or buy a stake in top players. For info, visit PokerStake and follow Josh on X.
Additional image courtesy of Enrique Malfavon/PokerGO.
