Melbourne, Australia poker ace Joseph Hachem added a World Poker
Tour Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship win to his c.v.
this week and in the process pocketed a winner's check for almost
$US2.2 million at the Bellagio Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. His winnings
include a $25 000 seat sponsorship in the WPT World Championship.
The event is the biggest tournament on the World Poker Tour circuit,
the rival code to the World Series of Poker, in which the former chiropractor
pocketed $10 million when he achieved final victory in July last year.
"He's very emotional, very humble and over the moon,"
Hachem's brother Tony said last night. "But he's beaten
the best players in America, some of whom have been playing the game
for 40 years."
The respected poker website Cardplayers.com estimated that up to two
million Australians followed 39-year-old Hachem's progress online.
The next stop on the Aussie's tour will be to play in the $10 million
Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas next week, before returning
to his homeland for the Australian World Series at Melbourne's Crown
casino.
"I'm more excited than I was when I won the World Series,"
a jubilant Hachem told PokerListings.com after taking down runner-up
Jim Hanna in heads-up play at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Second-placed Hanna won big, too - a $1 099 430 prize.
Joe Hachem is now one of only four men - Doyle Brunson, Juan Carlos
Mortensen and Scotty Nguyen - who hold World Series of Poker Main
Event and World Poker Tour titles.