Raymond Rahme

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, equating to some R21,000,000 in his own country. 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. Because of this windfall, Rahme has made more money than any other African tournament poker player.

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" 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." His 5 cashes at the WSOP account for $3,098,287 of those winnings.