Josh Arieh won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 1999, but it was actually his third-place finish in the WSOP Main Event in 2004 that put him on the map - though not necessarily in the way he would have liked.

When the Main Event final table aired on ESPN, Arieh was made out to be the "bad guy" at the table. His trash-talking, especially toward Harry Demetriou, blaring headphones and aggressive play came across as poor table etiquette, not to mention his private comment to David Williams to "bust this M*F*er" in regard to Greg Raymer, which was caught by a microphone and broadcast on television.

Arieh later apologized to Raymer and for his comments chastising Demetriou's play, but he isn't sorry for his overall demeanor at the poker table. Though he's a young player, he comes from an "old-school" poker background that is all about doing anything within the rules to throw off your opponent's game.

"I mean, that's just me," Arieh said in a PokerListings.com interview. "I don't think of myself as a badass, but I'm not going to lay in bed at night and regret getting somebody off their game, because they're not going to pay my bills for me."

That aggressive, take-no-prisoners style has been cultivated over several years of poker play that began when Arieh was just a teen.

Though he was born in Rochester, N.Y., in 1974, Arieh and his family moved to Atlanta, Ga., 10 years later in 1984. His first game of choice while growing up was baseball and he later traded in his bat for a pool cue.

He began playing poker as a teenager when his fellow billiards players would head to a hotel room to play after the pool halls had shut down for the night.

In his PokerListings.com interview, Arieh said that as good as they were at playing pool, they were the exact opposite at the poker table. At some point he decided he wanted to be good and focused more on the game.

Eventually he began organizing Limit games where the stakes were as high as $20/$40. He started doing well in the Atlanta area, and when he turned 21 he also turned to the poker tournament world.

However, becoming a pro poker player was not a conscious decision he made one day. Arieh has said he sort of naturally fell into it. He'd be playing poker, and if he had money, he wouldn't work. If he went broke, he'd go to work somewhere to collect a couple paychecks and get back in the game.

"So there was never really a time where I just decided, well I'm going to play poker," Arieh said. "But my best friend growing up put it this way - he told me, 'Josh, if you go get a job, it costs you money,' because I'd go and I'd earn 10 bucks an hour or something, but I wouldn't be able to stay out all night gambling, because I'd have to go to work the next day and make my $80."

In May 1999, he proved just how right his friend was by winning the $3,000 Limit Hold'em event of the World Series of Poker to take home his first bracelet along with a $202,800 payday.

It was no small accomplishment either, as he had taken on a final table that included Humberto Brenes, "Captain" Tom Franklin, Howard Lederer and John Juanda. But Arieh admits that at the time he had no idea who those players even were, so it didn't really intimidate him.

From that tournament win he went on to keep playing with the goal of learning every time he played. That tactic paid off as he cashed in six events the following year, all of them final-table appearances, including a second-place finish behind Johnny Chan in the 2000 WSOP $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event.

The following few years weren't quite as successful, though he did make it deep in a World Poker Tour event in 2003, coming out in 11th place.

It was 2004 that hurled him to the forefront of the poker world with his third-place finish in the WSOP Main Event. Not only did he gain notoriety for his table image, he walked away with a huge payday of $2.5 million.

The win allowed his wife, Angela, to be able to quit her job and help manage his poker career, and Arieh says it helped him take his game to another level.

To prove the point, later that year he tacked on a third-place finish at the WPT Borgata Poker Open, adding another $286,000 to his bankroll. In 2005 he added another WSOP bracelet to his collection as well, beating out a final table during the $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event that included Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Dave Colclough and Erik Seidel.

It was that second bracelet win, Arieh told PokerListings.com, that was his biggest poker accomplishment so far.

"It was the year after my finish in the Main Event, and it was in my best game, and I was clearly touted as the underdog because I was playing Chris Ferguson," Arieh said. "It just felt good to win - my wife was there, and I expected to win and I went out and did it."

His success has continued since, and poker has also led to achievements away from the poker table. He is one of the featured players in the video game "Stacked with Daniel Negreanu" and is a member of the Bodog.com team of professional poker players. He, along with David Williams and Evelyn Ng, represents Bodog.com at tournaments and play at the poker site.

Arieh uses Bodog.com to hone his poker tournament skills when he's not in a live tournament. He used to play online more than 50 hours per week and has said the Internet provides a good place for people of all ages to learn and recognize situations that come up in poker tournaments.

One of the things Arieh has learned that has made him so successful is bankroll management.

"I don't play poker near as good as everybody else out there, but I feel like I manage my money very well," he said when interviewed by Phil Gordon during a Poker Edge show radio broadcast.

He recommends sticking to levels you're comfortable playing and donning blinders in the casinos so you don't get sidetracked by the other games and betting going on that can create a leak in your bankroll that's hard to plug.

His second piece of advice is to take the game more seriously than your opponents. He's spent thousands of hours working on his game - at home, online and in live games - in order to get to the level he's at now.

When not busy on the road or working on his poker skills, Arieh enjoys golf and playing pool back in his hometown of Atlanta, along with spending time with his wife and three children.