Poker's "Bad Boy" Chino Rheem Leads the Pack at WSOP High Roller Bounty Event

David Chino Rheem was sitting pretty in Day 1 of the three day Event #2: High Roller Bounty No-Limit Hold’em  He's beating out the likes of poker's biggest money earners, including the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel. The LA-based poker pro finished in seventh place at the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, cashing for $1,772,650. Years later he'd be accused of cheating another player.

With all the recent cheating scandals occurring in the world of poker, Rheem's past alleged improprieties seem like child's play perhaps.

Fellow poker pro Will Molson accused Rheem of cheating him out of $40,000 at the time.  The Epic Poker League placed Rheem on probation as a result.

"The incident occurred last year at EPT London. My friend brought Chino into our room to hang out and play some online. This was the first time I met him, but obviously I knew about him from all his TV appearances and from seeing him play in big tournaments," Molson writes as he describes the incident further.

"He claimed he needed PokerStars money so he can directly buy into the event and he would swap Full Tilt Poker money in return. He also says that his boy Michael Mizrachi needs the same hook-up, and tells me, after calling him, that I will be getting a transfer from "The Grinder" on Full Tilt Poker for both of them," Molson adds.

Then, following a big 2013 $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship win of $1.150,297, there were concerns Rheem might be arrested at a Seminole Hard Rock event. He had prior arrests and there were questions as to whether an outstanding warrant could still be in effect at the time.

Lt. Marino of the Hollywood Police confirmed to Gambling911.com that the "trespassing" offense against Rheem was not something that his department was likely to pursue.  The Hard Rock Casino is located in Hollywood, Florida.

"There would be no reason for Florida to extradite David on this offense seeing that it's considered a misdemeanor and was given a ‘notice to appear' (ticket) which probably entailed some fines to pay," Lt. Marino told Gambling911's Jenny Woo back I 2008 when Rheem made the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

In a 2018 article, Upswing Poker referred to Rheem as having "a mountain of debt".

From that website:

There is little debate that Rheem is a controversial character. Between his drug accusations and gambling problems, perhaps the strongest accusations result from his mountain of unpaid debts.

The reference is to the allegations of owing other players money.

Unlike others who may not have the funds to repay, Rheem most certainly does. Or, at least, did. For some reason, Rheem has a problem hanging on to his money.

It should be noted that poker pro Ben Lamb reported that Rheem paid back his $100k debt in its entirety.

Chino Rheem	1,300,000	-180,000
Chris Brewer	1,290,000	112,000
Bill Klein	1,210,000	-230,000
Alex Foxen	1,180,000	285,000
Darren Elias	1,060,000	245,000
Michael Moncek	920,000	20,000
Ali Imsirovic	900,000	75,000
Koray Aldemir	885,000	-49,000
Chance Kornuth	840,000	430,000
Jonathan Jaffe	835,000	160,000
Laszlo Bujtas	820,000	20,000
Dario Sammartino	770,000	130,000
Sergio Aido	735,000	135,000
Sergi Reixach	730,000	14,000
Phil Ivey	712,000	127,000
Brian Rast	700,000	-140,000
Christoph Vogelsang	686,000	248,000
Shaun Deeb	680,000	25,000
Erik Seidel	640,000	-180,000
Justin Young	610,000	9,000
Dan Shak	580,000	50,000
Andrew Lichtenberger	580,000	-20,000
Jake Schindler	565,000	-45,000
Nick Petrangelo	535,000	0
Daniel Negreanu	515,000	84,000
Bryn Kenney	460,000	-70,000
Adrian Mateos	460,000	-111,000
David Peters	405,000	-145,000
Andrew Robl	405,000	0
Sean Winter	355,000	-201,000
Cary Katz	330,000	-255,000
Mikita Badziakouski	330,000	60,000
Dan Smith	241,000	-192,000
Scott Ball	175,000	-447,000
Chris Hunichen	100,000	-378,000

- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com