AN OSTEOPATH who had to give up his profession because of a rare blood disorder has become one of the biggest poker winners in history, taking home $7.5 million from the 2005 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Joseph “Hash” Hachem, 39, from Melbourne, Australia, took the top prize by outlasting Steven Dannenmann, a Bloody Mary-sipping American accountant, in the 14-hour final at Binion’s Gambling Hall.

Mr Dannenmann, 38, did not leave empty handed: he took $4.25 million (£2.4 million) for second place.

The total prize pool at the World Series of Poker, which began on July 7, was $103 million, a poker world record, collected from a field of 5,619 players. The top nine players all received prizes of more than $1 million.

“I’ve been trying to get here for a long time,” said Mr Hachem, who paid $10,000 to enter the main event. “To have made the final table was an honour. To win, what words?”

Behind him, a group of his countrymen bellowed: “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!”

“I was on a mission not just for myself, but for them as well,” Mr Hachem said. “From what I’ve been told, Australia has gone mad.”

In the final, unbearably tense moments of the tournament, Mr Hachem bet a notional $2 million on a straight 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Mr Dannenmann, who held a pair of aces, raised the stakes to $5 million. At that point, Mr Hachem went “all in”, betting his entire stack of chips, worth a notional $30 million. Mr Dannenmann called. The final card was a 4, leaving Mr Hachem the winner.

The World Series of Poker was invented by the late Lester “Benny” Binion in 1970 and has become so successful that it is now broadcast live by ESPN, the American sports network. Mr Binion was a natural showman, rarely appearing in public without his white Stetson and matching white buffalo coat.

After his death, his Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel & Casino empire was broken up, with the main Las Vegas hotel and casino going to his son, Teddy, and daughter, Becky Behnen.

It was Teddy Binion who popularised the version of poker known as “no limit Texas Hold ‘em”. He died in 1998, however, after a suspected heroin overdose. It was later alleged that the casino owner was, in fact, murdered by his live-in lover, a stripper called Sandy Murphy, and her secret boyfriend, Rick Tabish, a lorry contractor. It was claimed that they were after his $4 million fortune, buried in a vault beneath Death Valley National Park, Nevada. The pair were convicted of murder, but acquitted in a second trial.

Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel eventually went bust in typically flamboyant style, causing US marshals to raid the premises and seize $1.9 million in cash from croupiers, bunny-girl waitresses and bartenders.

Within minutes of winning the tournament, Mr Hachem called his wife, Jeanie, 34, and four children in Melbourne, where it was 3am. “He’s over the moon,” she said. “He’s coming back in two or three weeks. He’ll go to greater heights, but I don’t know what heights.”

She added that the money would be spent on their children’s education and to become “debt free”. She also said that she would not wait for him to return from Las Vegas before going shopping.

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