Emad Tahtouh is a professional poker player from Melbourne, Australia. Even though he has been playing poker right from his childhood, he started taking a keen interest in the game only after watching the Caribbean Stud game at the Crown Casino with his friend. Emad Tahtouh took to online poker, especially hold’em games when he discovered that he can play poker for free at Pokerstars.net. He later started frequenting the poker room at the Crown Casino, a popular casino in Melbourne. Emad Tahtouh also honed his poker skills by reading books suggested by other poker players at the Crown and soon began appearing in tournaments in Australia.
Emad Tahtouh began making waves in the Australian poker scene after he finished second in the No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2005 Crown Australian Poker Championship and bagged $39,486. The following year, in 2006, he finished as the runner-up in the No-Limit Hold’em event at the New Zealand Poker Championship. Emad Tahtouh shot to international fame that year at the 37th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) with his seventh-place finish in the Pot-Limit Hold'em event, which helped him take home $71,064. The year also saw Emad Tahtouh consolidate his position in the Australian poker circuit with his impressive performance at the Victorian Poker Championship held at the Crown Casino. He finished as the runner-up in a couple of No-Limit Hold’em events at the tournament and bagged a total of $40,198 in prize money.
Later in September 2006, he took part in the No-Limit Hold'em event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Season 3 held in London and cashed in a whopping amount of $535,977 by finishing second.
In 2007, Emad Tahtouh finished third in the Limit Seven Card Stud event at the Victorian Championship Tournament in his hometown and pocketed $1,276. In November 2007, Emad Tahtouh appeared in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) held at the Grand Waldo Hotel, Macau. His fifth-place finish at the final table in the No-Limit Hold'em High Rollers event enabled him to walk away with $64,512. In 2008, he cashed in $21,230 by playing at the No-Limit Hold'em event at the 39th Annual WSOP.
Emad Tahtouh is inspired by his friend Joe Hachem, a fellow Australian poker. His parents and sister live in Melbourne, and he makes sure that he spends at least two months a year at home, even though he spends better part of the year travelling.