Hachem goes close

Over in Las Vegas the WSOP is in full swing and last year’s winner of the Main Event, Australian Joe Hachem has narrowly missed out on winning a second gold bracelet.

The chance came in Event #5, the $2,500 buy-in Short-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, as he crashed out in heads up play to Californian Dutch Boyd.

It was a cruel blow for Hachem, whose A-Q was a heavy favourite against Boyd’s A-5; but with an Ace on the flop, a 5 arrived on the river to dash the Melbourne player’s hopes of a second WSOP bracelet.

For Boyd however, the victory was sweet: “You walk into this room, you look around, and everybody is so good,” Dutch Boyd said in a post-tournament interview with ESPN’s Norman Chad. “I have been coming here for four years, and three years I have played in it. This room is so full of great players that I really never knew if I would be able to get one of these (gold bracelets).”

“It’s not like they give these away. I look at the names of players who have won a gold bracelet, players like Doyle (Brunson), T.J. (Cloutier), and Joe (Hachem)….and it’s just amazing to be sitting here. It’s an incredible feeling.”

But for Hachem the loss was a crushing blow. This guy is a proper poker player and is looking to start collecting WSOP bracelets and carve his name into the annals of poker.

As he left the arena after being consoled by his wife, and also his friend and 2005 Main Event winner Greg Raymer, Hachem was given a standing ovation by players competing in another tournament.

It was a spine-tingling moment and a great mark of respect for the reigning champion.

The event was the largest short-handed tournament ever staged with 1,068 entires and total prize money of $1,457,820.

And it looks like records are going to broken every day at the 2006 WSOP and a further one tumbled when Event #4, the $1,500 Limit Hold’em, offered the biggest Limit prize in history.

There was $1,457,820 to be won in total and the $335,289 first prize was taken down by a 29-year-old Iranian-born student from Los Angeles named Kianoush Abolfathi, who strapped on his first WSOP gold bracelet.