Raymond Rahme
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Raymond Rahme (born 1945) is a South African professional poker player. He was the first African to reach a final table at a World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing third and earning $3,048,025,[1] equating to some R21,000,000 in his own country.[2] He took his seat at the 2007 Main Event by finishing third at the All Africa Poker Championship, the largest poker tournament ever played on the African continent.[3] Because of this windfall, Rahme has made more money than any other African tournament poker player.[4]
Early days
Rahme left school at the age of fifteen — "I have no formal education behind me [... but] I guess you could say I've been streetwise since an early age"[2] — and bought his first automobile with money garnered from illegal gambling dens in Hillbrow, Gauteng, where he made ends meet.
As an adult, however, he became a successful businessman, involved in such a variety of concerns as construction, car dealerships, nightclubs, bookmaking, restaurants and "you name it".[2]
Today
Rahme and his late wife Bernadette have six children. He plays online poker as a member of "Team PokerStars" (which sponsored his trip to the WSOP) under the screen name "Ray Rahme",[5] but it is less a passion than a duty now. "I don't really enjoy internet poker," he told SA Sports Illustrated recently, "but my contract says I have to play online for sixty hours a month. Internet poker is impersonal. You have no control over the game or your opponents."[2]
In 2006, he came into the online game only as a retirement hobby after being introduced to it by a friend:Template:Fact
Initially I took part in cash competitions with online players, but I got frustrated because I kept losing money. I was about to give up when my friend suggested I try online gambling, and that's where it all began. I paid R77 to take part in a satellite tournament and made it through to a mini-tournament, where I had to pay R385 to sign up. I won that and was invited to the All Africa Poker Championship in Swaziland, not online but around the table, and, when I finished in the top four there, I got a travel package of R150,000 to the main WSOP tournament in Las Vegas.[2]
He was strongly supported there by a vociferous throng of his countrymen, especially after he eliminated Alexander Kravchenko, at which point it burst into a jubilant rendition of "Shosholoza".[2] It was only after the WSOP, however, that he decided to make a career of his hobby: "I didn't want to be known as a one-hit wonder."[2] Since then, he has picked up victories at Gold Reef City and Emperor's Palace locally, and Sanremo, Swaziland and the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, among others.[2] As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,500,000.[6] His 5 cashes at the WSOP account for $3,098,287 of those winnings.[7]
References
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- ↑ Justgambleforfree.com: WSOP 2007 Main Event Final Table Accessed 26 November 2007
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Redelinghuys, Pieter. "Poker Face." SA Sports Illustrated, October 2008: 67-68
- ↑ PokerPages.com profile Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Hendon Mob all-time money list
- ↑ pokerstars.com: Team PokerStars - Raymond Rahme
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