Sami Bechahed’s Journey From Pitching Cards To Crushing Poker TournamentsDealer Domination: Frenchman Excels On Both Sides Of The Table |
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Some of the biggest names in poker started at the by table dealing cards, enjoying the job security, insurance, and steady paycheck that professional gamblers lack. That includes World Series of Poker main event winners Scotty Nguyen and Johnny Chan. Mike Matusow dealt all around Las Vegas in the early days of his career to supplement his income.
Ted Forrest also began his career working as a dealer in Las Vegas, and Layne Flack worked the box in Deadwood, South Dakota, while attending college. David Chiu credited his time dealing in Black Hawk, Colorado, for learning how players react to hands.
Add Sami Bechahed to that list of successful players who started out in the dealer chair. The 38-year-old parlayed his experience in the box and a love for the game into some major success at the tables over the last few years, racking up $1.6 million in live tournament winnings.
The Paris native’s run started in 2021 after winning a pair of events at the Bike, and in August 2022 he stepped it up with a runner-up finish in a $275 side event at the Legends of Poker for $194,100. That November, he added another WSOP Circuit ring at Choctaw in Oklahoma, grabbing the biggest score of his career for $274,916.
In March 2023, Bechahed continued his hot streak by scoring the trophy in the Mini Mega Millions at Gardens Casino in California for $155,540. The wins and deep runs just kept piling up, and when the PokerStars North American Poker Tour returned to Las Vegas in November 2023, the Frenchman came out on top for another $268,945.
“It was by far the highlight of my young professional career,” Bechahed said. “Being able to win it against top players like the ones I faced at the final table and prior felt like a huge accomplishment.”
Bechahed has a real card-playing workmanlike story – rising up the ranks from dealer to player in lower buy-in events before graduating to the higher stakes.
“I’m not sure there’s a key to the success, but the experience I built by dealing definitely helped me have a very good understanding and feel for the game,” he says. “I don’t use solvers at all. I don’t even know how to use them. I never hired a [strategy] coach. But that doesn’t mean I don’t work on my game, I think about poker all the time and watch a lot of content. I hired a mental coach, which really helps me structure my thoughts, feelings, and my game in general. I really have pride in knowing that my game is the reflection of who I am and my interpretation of the game.”
With a growing poker record, Bechahed spoke with Card Player about his journey in the game, shifting to becoming a full-time player, and where he’s headed in the future.
Getting In The Game
Born in France, Bechahed spent his early years in Tunisia, where he lived until age 6. He then returned to France until age 29 and says he had a “pretty normal and happy childhood.” He now believes three nationalities represent the person he’s become – France, the U.S., and Tunisia.
A love of poker began in his late teens when he started playing with some of his soccer teammates around 2005. Games were a regular occurrence in the clubhouse, with players buying in for €10.
“We would play all night,” he recalled. “I got hooked immediately. I was winning consistently, then started playing a lot online. I was a winning player but nothing crazy. I kept playing a lot for 10 years, but all this was very recreational and very small.”
The stakes ramped up considerably after a move to Los Angeles in April 2016. Bechahed was passionate about poker, but his English wasn’t great. He also needed a job after receiving his work permit. A free dealing school at the Bicycle Casino seemed like a good solution and before long he was shuffling and pitching cards at one of California’s leading poker rooms.
The gig seemed like a natural fit and he must have been impressive in the role. By March of 2017, Bechahed was chosen as one of a select few dealers for the Live at the Bike, spreading some of the biggest livestreamed cash games at the time.
COVID changed everything. Casinos around the state closed and Bechahed needed something else to make ends meet. To get by, he started dealing at home games all around L.A.
“That was life-changing in terms of money, since I built a legitimacy dealing Live at the Bike,” he says. “I would get hired in the best home games. By December 2021, casinos reopened, and home games were dying little by little.”
The slowdown in his home game dealing turned out to be fortuitous for Bechahed as a player. He started entering smaller tournaments and found some immediate success to build a bankroll – scoring $5,000 here and there before grabbing a runner-up in a $300 WSOP Circuit event at the Gardens for $59,935. Despite the success, Bechahed kept dealing, which led to another opportunity in March of 2022 with Hustler Casino Live.
“Despite the early tournament success, I couldn’t ever imagine myself going as full-time poker pro. Working for HCL was great because of the experience of dealing to amazing players and the flexibility of the job,” Bechahed says. “Ryan Feldman (Hustler Casino Live founder and owner) knew I played tournaments, and let me have my own schedule as long as I was professional and reliable on the job, which I never failed to be.”
Feldman says Bechahed is one of the best dealers he’s ever worked with, having known him since 2017 when he was running operations for the Bike. The HCL owner also testified to his character behind the scenes as well.
“He was such a good dealer, and more importantly a great person,” Feldman says. “Sami is one of the nicest and friendliest people I’ve ever worked with, always a pleasure to be around. I remember years ago he would tell me about online poker tournaments he’s playing, and he would ask me for advice. In between dealer downs he would be practicing. He always had the urge to become a great poker player. He would learn a lot by watching players play while he’s dealing and predicting what hands they have.”
“When he started having big tournament success, all of us at HCL would be rooting him on and following along. It made us so happy every time to see him go deep in tournaments. It’s amazing to see his success.”
Tournament Tested
Bechahed’s poker side project turned into a full-time way of life after the big win at the NAPT in 2023. At the 2024 WSOP, Bechahed notched 15 cashes in live and online events, including a 74th-place finish in the $10,000 main event for $120,000. His main event journey ended when his full house was topped by a straight flush, concluding what he called “an amazing summer.”
Bechahed also grabbed an eighth-place score of $48,904 in a $3,000 no-limit hold’em six-handed event and 15th in a $5,000 no-limit event for $32,059. In the latter, he rivered his own one-outer straight flush to send Erik Seidel to the rail. The hand was named as one of the biggest bad beats of the year.
In November, Bechahed was back in Resorts World Las Vegas attempting to defend his NAPT title. While he didn’t pull off the double, Bechahed did give it a solid effort – taking 37th for $17,100. He also won a $550 eight-game mix event to add yet another trophy to his display case.
“For now, I only play live tournaments,” he says. “But I’m also aware that I’m going to find an alternative. Either live cash games, which I don’t really enjoy, or online tournaments, but I’m not good enough technically (in those) to play profitably. So, for now I travel all around the world to play poker tournaments, which is fun and a longtime dream, but tiring and difficult when you have a little family.”
Back In France, But On The Hunt For Poker
The family packed up and relocated back to Paris in August after considering the move for a while. Bechahed married his wife Nicole in 2019 and they now have a son that is almost a year old. The move offered a bit of a change of scenery, despite more limited options to hit the tables.
“We moved to France mainly because it was my American wife’s dream to live in Paris,” he says. “She has been trying to convince me to do so for five years. It finally made sense at the beginning of 2024. We wanted a change of lifestyle and being close to my family played a big part in this move. The poker scene isn’t the best in Paris. There are not a lot of options in tournaments, besides low stakes, and the rake is too high in cash games, so I have to travel a lot to play poker.”
When not at the card table, Bechahed enjoys spending time with Nicole and their son, exploring Paris, eating at nice restaurants, and drinking good wine. Soccer also remains a passion. He once dreamed of playing professionally but poker now fits the bill when it comes to staying competitive.
“My main goal is to win an EPT,” he says. “I know that it’s hard to achieve as I share this goal with a lot of amazing players. Ever since I started watching poker on TV many years ago, it was something so fascinating for me that I would never have believed I would even be able to play them. Obviously, winning a WSOP bracelet would also be great.”
Bechahed’s gritty rise to the top continues. After a big run over the last two years, don’t bet against him.
Find Bechahed on Twitter/X @SoWIZZSami
*Photos by PokerStars – Joe Giron, Manuel Kovsca – WPT
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