Chino Rheem
Chino Rheem has now amassed more than $10 million in live tournament earnings (photo: Carlos Monti, PokerStars)

Chino Rheem is about as polarizing of a figure as you’ll find in today’s world of poker, but for all of the issues he’s had over the years, there’s no denying his ability to perform on the game’s largest stages. Rheem has won three World Poker Tour titles, final tabled the WSOP Main Event, and amassed more than $10.5 million in live tournament earnings.

Coming off a first-place score for more than $1.5 million in the 2019 PCA Main Event, Rheem recently became the 41st poker player in history to win more than $10 million from live poker tournaments. Here’s a look at the five biggest scores of Rheem’s poker career.

7th in 2008 WSOP Main Event ($1,772,650)

Rheem had been around the poker world for a handful of years before the 2008 World Series of Poker, and he even had a second-place finish in a gold bracelet event in 2006 that earned him $327,981. He truly made waves in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, though, when he aggressively splashed his way through the 6,844-player field to reach the final table in what was the first-ever WSOP November Nine.

Rheem entered the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table in sixth position on the leaderboard. His run ultimately ended in seventh place after he got the last of his money in with the AsKc against Peter Eastgate’s AhQd. A queen hit the flop, and that was all she wrote for Rheem, who was sent to the rail with a $1.772 million prize.

1st in 2019 PCA Main Event ($1,567,100)

The 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event attracted 865 entries. With six players left, Rheem entered the final day with the chip lead. He busted all five of his opponents to win the 2019 PCA Main Event and capture its $1.567 million first-place prize.

This result proved to be, at the time, the second largest of Rheem’s career, just behind his WSOP Main Event seventh-place finish. It also moved him to more than $10.5 million in live tournament earnings and he became the 74th player to eclipse the $10 million earnings mark, per HendonMob.

1st in WPT Five Diamond ($1,538,730)

Rheem was one of 497 entries in the World Poker Tour’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic event at Bellagio in 2008. The event was part of Season VII of the WPT and featured a buy-in of $15,400. The prize pool was $7.231 million, of which Rheem got the most of when he scored the $1.538 million top prize.

It was the first of Rheem’s three World Poker Tour titles and came just a month after he finished seventh in the World Series of Poker Main Event. At this final table, Rheem had stiff competition in the form of Justin Young, Evan McNiff, Steve Sung, Amnon Filippi, and Hoyt Corkins.

1st in WPT World Championship ($1,150,297)

To conclude Season XI of the World Poker Tour, Rheem won the $25,500 buy-in WPT World Championship. The event was held at Bellagio in Las Vegas in 2013 and attracted 146 entries to create a $3.54 million prize pool. In the end, it was Rheem against Erick Lindgren for the title, with Rheem coming out on top to win a $1.15 million payday and his second WPT title.

1st in Epic Poker League Event #1 ($1,000,000)

Currently standing as the fifth largest score of Rheem’s poker career is a victory in the now defunct Epic Poker League. Rheem won the EPL’s first title, defeating a field of 137 entries in the $20,000 buy-in tournament to score the $1 million top prize. At the final table, Rheem out-battled runner-up Erik Seidel and third-place finisher Jason Mercier en route to the title and million dollar payday.