Australian Hachem Wins WSOP

 

July 16

Online casino players from all over the planet have been waiting to see who finally one the 2005 World Series of Poker. Was it because so many players in the event were actual online casino gamblers? Who knows.

We thought the Thursdays round was long, the final table seemed to go on and on with no end in sight. After the long battle of poker playing, Joseph Hachem came out on top just before 7AM today. For almost 14 hours, the players seemed to keep going on pure emotion alone.

Not only was this year's WSOP the most popular of Series, it held the highest prize of all times, too. What's more, the final table took the longest time to play out ever.

Friday afternoon, the 9 finalists sat down at the table for the fight of their lives.  By early Saturday morning, only two players were left sitting at the table.   Joseph Hachem and Steven Dannenmann were to two men remaining, both playing their very first WSOP. Hachem is from Australia and Dannenmann is from the US. This comes as a surprise to many who though perhaps Phil Ivey or Fossilman were going to win. Not so.

At the end, huge stacks of $100 dollar bills in bundles of $50,000 were piled on the table surrounded by security personnel wielding shotguns. Too cool. Hachem even kissed his stacks of cash - who wouldn't.

On the 232nd hand of the night, Hachem was victorious. He won when his seven-high straight beat Dannenmann's pair of aces. All of the $56 million in chips from all players was sitting in the pot.

For the most part, this night was filled with calculated and  intelligent moves by all. Only the players showing fatigue by making dumb moves seemed to fade into the night.

Here are the final results from the last 9 players:

1. Joseph Hachem $7.5 million

2. Steven Dannenmann $4.5 million

3. John "Tex" Barch

4. Aaron Kanter

5. Andrew Black

6. Scott Lazar

7. Daniel Bergsdorf

8. Brad Kondracki

9. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow

Poker player facts:

 - Tiffany Williams is an attorney and she was the last female in the event.

 - Steven Dannenmann hails from Maryland and he is an accountant and mortgage banker.

 - Winner Joseph Hachem is from Australia and is a former chiropractor turned poker pro.