Home / Poker News August 2011 / The Chino Rheem Story – Part 2
The Chino Rheem Story – Part 2
Posted by: Randy Williams - Tue, 2011-08-16 14:59
Will Molson’s post in a popular poker forum regarding the underhanded ways in which Chino Rheem borrows money from his fellow pros never to repay them, ended up kick-starting an entire procession of Rheem’s victims who began stepping forth one by one to voice their woes and to let the world know just what kind of a guy Rheem really is.
Joseph Cheong was the first player who felt compelled to tell his Chino story after Molson broke the ice. Cheong says he too lent money to Chino, $40k to be exact, money that he pretty much lost track of. He says he’s given up hope ever to see his money again. Given all the borrowing and lending going on in the poker world, it is quite difficult to turn down a player who is quite well-known in poker circles and who brings solid collateral to the table. In Rheem’s case, that collateral was the fact that he said he owed a piece of Michael Mizrachi in the
WSOP Main Event. That turned out to be true: when Cheong checked with the Grinder, he confirmed.
Since then, Cheong has learned that the same deal was offered to several other players, who got swindled too. In his post, Cheong reflects that suing Rheem for the money wouldn’t make any kind of sense since he’s broke anyway, and resorting to violence to get the money back isn’t his thing.
Ben Lamb was another player who had apparently gotten into a bet with the wrong guy at this year’s WSOP. Rheem swindled him too, getting away with his money.
Where exactly does Chino Rheem stand financially though? There seems to be something of a consensus regarding the fact that Rheem is constantly broke and he needs his swindling ways to keep himself afloat. Michael Mizrachi seems to be one of the high profile friends that willingly or not aid and abate Rheem’s lifestyle.
The EPL, the inaugural Main Event of which Rheem has just won, didn’t have a whole lot to say on the matter, except that it would not tolerate such behavior from any of its players in the future.
