The past year on the poker scene has been marked by some unexpected turns in a number of significant poker events, but Ray Rahme’s victory on the 31 May 2008 at the All Africa Poker Tournament held at Piggs Peak Hotel & Casino in Swaziland, certainly came as no surprise .While a poker game can offer various twists and outcomes, a poker master in the level of Ray Rahme is simply just too much to handle for most poker players, thereby making the tournament result predictable.
Piggs Peak’s very own poker legend did it again, playing an outstanding game throughout, earning every bit of his One Million Rand first prize! “This is my best tournament so far,” Ray stated humbly. Ray Rahme made the headlines when he won twenty-one Million Rand for his third place finish at the World Series of Poker 2007, after winning his WSOP seat package through the May 2007 All Africa Poker tournament.
What did come as a surprise, is the performance of runner up Allistair Didloff. Allistair was a late entry and ended up outlasting a tough field of experienced players and former All Africa Poker champions, with no re-buys or add ons, to finally go heads-up with Ray at a total investment of only R77, to walk away with a whopping R400,000 for his second place finish and a trip to Las Vegas to play in the main $10,000 Main Event of the WSOP.
This All Africa Poker Tournament also sports another poker record. Ten WSOP Packages, for each of the players who made it to the final table, valued at R150,000 each were included in the prize pool! So joining Team All Africa Poker are Ray Rahme, Michael Simoes, Greg Ronaldson Peter Vermaas; Gordon Harris; James Gubb; Ryan Eber; Darren Miller; Nik Rujevic; David Spangenberg; Reynhart van Rooyen and of course Allistair Didloff.
“If the quality of play we saw at the All Africa Poker Tournament during this weekend is an indication of what we can expect from these guys at the World Series of Poker, then the Southern African players will definitely hold their own against the rest of the world”, says Wendy Graaf, Group Marketing Manager of Piggs Peak Casino. “We hope that more poker history will be made, to even improve on Ray’s magnificent achievement last year. So hold on World Series of Poker 2008, here come’s Team All Africa Poker!”
