For the second year running Internet poker players have scooped the
top prizes at the final table of the World
Series of Poker, which took place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas
last Friday reports Associated Press.
Last year it was Chris Moneymaker, but in 2004 it was a Connecticut
patent attorney called Greg (Fossilman) Raymer who beat all comers
to become the reigning champion with a cash prize of US $ 5 million.
And the last man he had to beat was another Internet champ, 23 year
old Dallas student David Anthony Williams.
A field that began with 2,576 entrants, many of them Internet players
on May 22 was down to nine by Friday afternoon. The game was No-Limit
Texas Hold'Em, in which a player can risk all his chips with every
draw of a card, guaranteeing high-stakes action and big losers.
In head-to-head play, Raymer had a stack worth $17.1 million compared
with the $8.2 million held by Williams. On the seventh hand, Williams
pushed all his chips into the pot and Raymer matched him.
Both had full houses -- but Raymer had eights over twos, while Williams
had fours over twos. Williams busted out.
Raymer, 39, whose nickname comes from his hobby of collecting fossils, snagged the top prize of $5 million and Williams earned $3.5 million for second place.
Opponents knocked out by the finalists did not go home empty handed.
Mike McClain (39) and Swedish player Mattias Andersson (24) banked $470 400 and $575 000 respectively whilst Matt Dean (25) received $675 000 for his seventh placing.
Al Crux, a professional player from New York state and 38 year old Glenn Hughes from Arizona won $800 000 and $1.1 million respectively, and fourth placed 1995 champion Dan Harrington picked up $1.5 million.
Third place went to Josh Arieh, a 29 year old professional player from Atlanta who earned himself a cool $2.5 million before being knocked out by Raymer's three queens to his pair of nines.