TexasHoldem-Info.com News: Joseph Hachem 2005 WSOP Champion Wins $7.5M

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Joseph Hachem 2005 WSOP Champion Wins $7.5M

The time is nearly 7 o’ clock on Saturday morning, and after almost 15 straight hours of intense high stakes poker, Aussie Joseph Hachem, has just made poker history. The professional poker player probably never would have dreamed that at the end of this long, grueling final game, he would be the last man standing and seven and a half million dollars richer. This result of a tournament featured on World Series of Poker has made Hachem the winner of the largest known gambling prize ever.

This is how the events of the evening (and the early morning) Of July 15th 2005 played out:

After eliminating over 5000 contestants, 9 players, including Hachem, sat at the final table of the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Texas Holdem event in a room in Binion’s Gambling Hall. The room was filled with excited onlookers, commentators, press, a couple of very big men suited with rifles and a table stacked with lots of cash ($7.5 million to be exact). At this point Hachem entered the game in sixth position.

As the hours passed slowly but surely players were eliminated. The first to go was Las Vegas’s own Mike Matusow followed by fellow American Brad Kondraki. Next was Sweden representative, Daniel Bergsdorf. In sixth place American Scott Lazar followed by Irish pro Andrew Black and finishing in fourth was California’s Aaron Kanter. Although they didn’t win the title, each of these players left the game with at least $1 million in their pockets.

After 14 hours of continuous play with many onlookers quickly fading, at 6 am the next morning, Joseph Hachem, Derrick Barch and Steve Dannenmann hung in there and continued playing in the longest continuous game in WSOP history.

It was now that Texan poker pro, Derrick Barch made his move. With a strong hand of A-6 Barch declared that he was going “All-In”. And to make this hand more interesting both Hachem and Dannenmann called his bet. With everyones hands now face up on the table and the community cards (Q-Q-6-Q-9) laid in front of everyone’s anxious eyes, Barch, sadly, was eliminated and become the third place finisher taking home two and a half million dollars with him. The winner of the hand was Hachem, who’s two Jacks made a stronger hand than Dannenmann’s pair of sevens.

Then there were two. (It’s worth mentioning that the blinds at this point in the game were set a $200 000 for the small and the big posting at a massive $400 000).

A short while later, the 232nd hand of the game was dealt. Dannenmann raised the pot and Hachem (now the chip leader) called. The flop was dealt, 4

-5

-6

. Dannenmann, feeling quite confident raised the pot an additional $700 000. Hatchem, in turn reacts by calling the bet and raising and additional $1 million. To that, Dannenmann calls, forcing himself to go All-In. Each player reveals their cards and it’s now that Dannenmann sees that there’s a good chance that he will not be named champion of the game.

To everyones relief (by now most people are so tired and just want the game to be over), Hachem reveals that his pocket cards are astonishingly, a 7

and a 3

. Hachem made a straight on the flop! And it looks as though it will beat Dannenmann’s A

-3

. Dannenmann’s only hope now is to draw a 7 and the two men will split the pot.

But as fate would have it, the turn is an Ace and the River reveals another 4

. And just like that history is made. At 6:54 am the game is finally over, the two Las Vegas showgirls finally get to make their entrance after patiently standing by, the crowd is on their feet (those who are still awake that is) and first time WSOP entrant Joseph Hachem’s wildest dreams come true.

For more information on winners of the WSOP be sure to visit our World Series of Poker section for details.

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