After Josh Arieh took down his first WSOP bracelet in the 1999 $3,000 Limit Hold’em event, he was asked if he had been intimidated by a final table that included Humberto Brenes, Howard Lederer and John Juanda. He said that he didn’t know who any of them were so he didn’t even have a reason to be intimidated.
Josh Arieh is an unpopular figure at the poker table: he is loud, openly judgmental of play as it is going on and on occasion, downright nasty. After being busted out in third place (a nifty $2,500,000 payday came with that exit as well) of the 2004 WSOP Main Event by eventual winner Greg Raymer, “Atlanta Josh” was overheard whispering into eventual runner-up David Williams’ ear, “Bust this m— f—” referring to Raymer.
As grating as he can be, Arieh has had a lot of success in both tournaments and cash games. In addition to his 1999 WSOP bracelet, he earned another by defeating Chris “Jesus” Ferguson Heads up in the 2005 $2,000 PL Omaha event. He is a major player in cash games in his home town Atlanta, Georgia and in fact, before turning 21, Josh was a major organizer of underground (i.e. illegal) cash games.
Arieh is also a highly successful online player playing under a number of aliases, most of which are unknown to the public. One of his known aliases is “nitbuster,” which became public knowledge following his 6th place finish in the 2007 World Championship of Online Poker. The 2007 WCOOP saw its top prize winner “The V0id” disqualified for cheating, bumping Arieh up to a 5th place finish and an additional $75,000. This caused a stir in the online poker community so Arieh saw fit to come forward as nitbuster to immediately dispel any accusations of wrongdoing.
Despite his reputation as a bit of a brawler, Arieh is a responsible family man. With his children becoming teenagers and his financial status secure, Atlanta Josh has drastically cut back on his poker playing: by his own estimates he plays in “a few live tournaments a year” and does the brunt of his play on Bodog.com (where he is a sponsored team member) in Omaha rooms. Josh was born on September 26, 1974 and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Angela and their three daughters.
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