Joe Awada (born Yehia Awada; ar, يحيى عواضة ; born March 12, 1959 in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

) is a professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player, based in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

. Awada moved from Lebanon to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in his early teenage years, working as a

juggler Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

, eventually touring with the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name '' Harlem'' because of ...

. After a car accident, he began working as a casino dealer and eventually became a regular on the

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a " heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tabl ...

circuit. At the

2004 World Series of Poker The 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was held at Binion's Horseshoe after Harrah's Entertainment purchased the casino and the rights to the tournament in January. Harrah's announced that future WSOP tournaments will be held in a moving circui ...

(WSOP), Awada finished second to

Scott Fischman Scott Fischman (born 1980 in Langhorne, Pennsylvania) is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Poker career Fischman grew up in South Jersey and moved to Las Vegas at the age of 12. He was introduced to poker by a sc ...

in the $1,500

no limit No Limit may refer to: Music Record labels *No Limit Records, a record label founded by Master P * No Limit Forever Records, a record label founded by Romeo Miller, son of Master P Albums * ''No Limit'' (Art Pepper album), 1977 * ''No Limit'' ...

hold'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fac ...

event. Awada would have won the gold bracelet in that tournament were it not for a

bad beat In poker, bad beat is a subjective term for a hand in which a player with what appear to be strong cards nevertheless loses. It most often occurs where one player bets the clearly stronger hand and their opponent makes a mathematically poor call ...

on the river that kept Fischman alive—Fischman won the tournament on the very next hand. Later in the same WSOP, Awada won a gold bracelet in the $5,000

seven-card stud Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River is a variant of stud poker. Before the 2000s surge of popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was the most widely played poker variant in home games across the United States ...

event, defeating

Marcel Lüske Marcel Lüske ( Amsterdam, Netherlands 23 March 1953) is a Dutch professional poker player. He finished 10th in the 2004 WSOP Main Event. Lüske is a mentor to and encourages the development of younger poker players. Early life Lüske's fathe ...

. Three months later, he made the final table of the

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the ...

(WPT) third season event won by

Doyle Brunson Doyle F. Brunson (born August 10, 1933) is a retired American poker player who played professionally for over 50 years. He is a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several ...

. Awada nearly went back to back, finishing fifth in the seven card stud championship the following year. The final table included John Phan, Chip Jett, Keith Sexton and eventual champion Jan Sørensen. Awada has also won an event on the Ultimate Poker Challenge and made the final table of a

World Series of Poker circuit event The World Series of Poker Circuit is a series of poker tournaments held annually at a variety of casinos since 2005 as a build-up to the World Series of Poker (WSOP). All Championship events are competed in no limit Texas hold 'em; preliminary eve ...

. As of 2018, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,040,000.Hendon Mob tournament results
/ref> His 9 cashes as the WSOP account for $580,759 of those winnings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Awada, Joe 1959 births American poker players Lebanese poker players World Series of Poker bracelet winners Sportspeople from Beirut People from Las Vegas Living people