Joseph Cheong plays online at Full Tilt Poker.

Joseph 'subiime' Cheong was born in Seoul, South Korea and moved to the United States at a young age. He discovered poker while attending the University of California in San Diego, where he impressively graduated with both a BA degree in psychology and a joint BA degree in mathematics and economics.

Having played poker through college, Cheong began playing full time after graduating. He now lives in La Mirada, California, and specializes in Hold ‘em Multi-Table Tournaments. Since 2007, he has regularly been going deep in large-field tournaments and has become a regular member of final tables on Full Tilt Poker.

Subiime’s biggest online tournament win so far came in Event #17 of MiniFTOPS in May, 2009. He outlasted a field of 2,286 players in the No-Limit Hold ‘em 6-Max tournament to claim the first prize of over $55,000. In all, he has played over 10,000 tournaments online, and has become a regular at MTT final tables.

Cheong began making the transition to live tournaments in 2009, but had to wait until 2010 for his first major success. He took down a WSOP Circuit event in San Diego, winning the $300 No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament. His dominant style accounted for six of the players at the final table and he walked away with a first prize of $17,541 and his first gold ring.

In 2010, Cheong entered his first WSOP Main Event after winning his seat through an online qualifier at Full Tilt Poker. He demonstrated his trademark aggressive style to consistently feature amongst the leaders throughout the tournament. By the time the November Nine was set, Cheong had the third biggest chip stack.

In preparation for poker’s most prestigious final table, Cheong headed to the United Kingdom to participate in the London leg of the European Poker Tour. He showed his WSOP Main Event performance was no fluke by finishing second in the £10K No Limit Hold ‘em – High Roller Turbo event, worth £162K ($253K).

Joseph returned to Las Vegas in November to compete as part of the November Nine and battled through to the final three. He was chip leader when he moved all in with As-7h against his fellow big stack, who turned over Qc-Qd. Cheong failed to improve his hand and the loss of the mega 180 million pot crippled him, before he finally bowed out five hands later. Cheong earned $4.1 million for his third placed finish.

Away from the tables Joseph enjoys art, especially using oil pastels, and playing tennis when he can.

Joseph 'subiime' Cheong plays online at Full Tilt Poker.