A 39-year-old former chiropractor from Australia is $7.5m richer after
emerging from a field of 5,600 Texas Holdem players to win the World
Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Joseph Hachem defeated a mortgage banker,
Steve Dannenmann of Maryland, in a 14-hour final round of the
week-long tournament at Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel.
"How could it not change my life?" Mr
Hachem asked. "It changes everything. I can look after my family, my
mum, my kids."
Each player in the tournament paid $10,000
to take part, with the top 560 emerging as winners, sharing a pot that
increased in a sliding scale to guarantee the nine finalists at least
$1m each.
Mr Hachem, whose share is worth £4.8m, was
cheered on in the hall by a contingent of his countrymen, who chanted:
"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!" after every big hand.
"I was on a mission not just for myself,
but for them as well," he said.
Mr Dannenmann, another unknown, took
$4.25m. The only known Texas Holdem player in the final, Mike "The
Mouth" Matusow, was the first of the nine finalists to be eliminated,
winning $1m for his troubles.
"I played the six best days of Texas
Holdem poker in my life," he said. "I'm going to bed happy."
Mr Hachem, who moved from Lebanon to
Melbourne in 1972, gave up his 13-year career as a chiropractor three
years ago to concentrate on poker.
