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Chino Rheem

Chino Rheem

About Chino Rheem

Current ResidenceLos Angeles, CA, USA
BornApril 15, 1980
Birth PlaceLos Angeles, CA, USA
Total Winnings$12,839,615

David Chino Rheem Trivia

  • Learned the game by battling against the brothers Michael and Robert Mizrachi.
  • Spend time in jail for drug possession and theft.
  • Presumably has more scams behind his name as cashes.
  • Has had a starring role in WPT’s online video series Mic’d on the Felt.
Player Score8/10
Aggressiveness8
Looseness9
Limit6
No-limit9
Side Games8
Steam Control6
Against Strong Players8
Against Weak Players9
Tournaments9
Short-Handed8

Back in the days when Chris Moneymaker had created the so called ‘Poker Boom’ by becoming World Champion Of Poker as an amateur, turning $40 into $2,5 Million, there were some ‘Young guns’ trying to make their way up into the poker world as well. One of them was Chino Rheem, who managed to get his first cash in 2005, was about to shock the world with his talent for the game.

The following years after poker became a real hot topic in the whole world, Chino Rheem was putting a lot of volume in the live scene, resulting in many cashes with his first big win during the $1.000 WSOP event in 2006 for $300K. Allan Cunningham took home the gold. Two years later, in 2008, Chino had his biggest run of his whole career, becoming 7th during the WSOP Main Event. He lost a huge pot at the final nine against Peter Southgate with his AK against AQ, giving Chino Rheem his first 7-figure score and Peter went on to win the whole lot. A promising start of the year for new hot shot of the poker world, getting his first real gold medal during the 2008 Doyle Brunson Classic 15K Five Diamonds event in December for a staggering $1,5M score. The tone had been set and he kicked off his, eventually, amazing career with a bang.

chino rheem 5diamond win

Chino Rheem, who got his nickname from his good friend Rob Mizrachi, was not only hitting the charts by his talented gameplay. After being grinding at the top of poker world things got a bit rough for him, as the vast majority of poker players does, Chino had given away a lot of his action to both colleague poker players and business people. It all came to light when he won the 20K buy-in Epic Poker League in 2011, which eventually turned to be a disaster on its own, winning the tournament for over $1M. Some players came with the news that Chino Rheem had not earned much himself, despite his major cashes over the years. Throughout the years, apparently, he had built up heavy debts and got most of them paid of with his earnings.

Despite all the negative news around his person, he managed to be always able to play. When it was cash games, tournaments, or online poker, he was always there showing his skills to the world. Fast forward to 2019, where he won the PCA Main Event for over $1,5M and collecting his 3rd victory at the World Poker Tour by taking the trophy home at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale in Hollywood for just over $700.000.

Bad image in the poker world

Chino Rheem has made his way up in the rankings of poker by winning several major tournaments, but this didn’t go without setbacks. The debacle at the Epic Poker League brought more attention not only to him as a poker player but also Chino as being Chino. Not being able to pay off all of his debts was one thing, but lying against his investors made the world stop spinning for him. During the Partypoker LIVE MILLIONS in 2018 he had played the 1K Open Event and he then lied about his last hand of the tournament. Presumably he had mentioned he lost AA < AK which went all-in preflop, but he busted actually cold 4bet jamming 95bbs with KTs into KK. Poker news sites and forums went ballistic about Chino turning back to his, then forgotten, bad image.

The 2+2 forum and many news websites laid out all the speculations which were going on at the time and some players even brought to the attention that he again wasn’t paying back the money he was owing investors, despite continuously winning tournaments. Even Chino Rheem himself is open and honest about it, for example in the interview PokerListings had him on during WPTDS in Brussels, Belgium.

Never back down

Regardless if he has more debts as winnings, the results built up throughout the years are showing that Chino Rheem does know very well how to play the game, not only with two cards, but also in mixed-games his skills are undisputed. Chino often mentions that he could have done things differently in the past, acknowledging his mistakes, but one thing in his life he never stopped doing, and that’s being victorious in tournaments. In 2022 alone he cashed in multiple tournaments for over a million dollars, including victories in the 25K PGT Heads-Up Championships defeating Elias in the finale, and leaving the whole field behind in the 15K Pot Limit Omaha at the US Poker Open, one day later as his 2nd place in the 15K US Poker Open running behind against William Foxen. Whatever people will say about Chino, he might backs down from debts and confrontations, the only thing he kept showing were/are his incredible poker skills and numerous results with cashes for over $12M.

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