Lightning strikes twice in Vegas: A look back at this year's World Series of Poker.

For the second year running an amateur internet qualifier has won the World Series of Poker of main event. Greg “Fossilman” Raymer is the new poker world champion – and a cool $5 million richer!

Raymer qualified for $10,000 buy-in tournament through a $150 online satellite. Although by no means a complete unknown – he took third place in the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods in 2001 – his stunning win showed once again that recreational players can hit the jackpot against the world’s best professionals.

The 39-year-old American, a corporate patent attorney from Connecticut, won the final heads up showdown after a week of play with a full house – deuces full of eights.

The hand, which beat a lower full house -deuces full of fours - was a fittingly spectacular end to the most extraordinary tournament in the history of poker.

Everyone knew this year’s WSOP main event was going to shatter records. In the weeks leading up to it some commentators were even predicting an unprecedented 2000 runners due to the massive influx of internet players. So the 2,576 who paid $10,000 to enter – more wanted to – meant the tournament had the biggest prize pool in the history of poker. In fact, it was the world’s richest sporting event.

The top five finishers became instant millionaires – and the prize money, with a minimum payout of $10,000, went all the way down to 225th place.

With so many entrants the action was always going to be fast. Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, the legendary downtown Las Vegas home of the event, was unable to accommodate all the players at once so the runners were split into two with half playing on Day 1 and half on Day 2.

By the end of Day 2 the field had shrunk dramatically to 1,108. Among the notable casualties was last year’s winner Chris Moneymaker as well as top professionals including Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, Daniel Negreanu and TJ Cloutier.

The first two days of action were nothing compared to the utter carnage on Day 3 though as the survivors from the first two days met up. By the end of it the dream had ended for another 832 players and there were just 276 left. Big names that busted out included Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan and Amarillo Slim Preston. Virtual unknown Greg Raymer, in 4th place at the end of the day, was starting to attract a little attention.

Day four saw the field reduced to 83, Day five to 32 and by the end of the sixth day the 9 final table players had been decided. Raymer had made the final table as massive chip leader – with a mountainous $8,215,000 in chips – and the press were swarming around him.

Suddenly everyone wanted to know why he’s called the “Fossilman”. Turns out he collects fossils - and even puts them on the table as lucky charms when playing poker. He also wore perhaps the oddest pair of shades ever seen in poker – reflective snake eyes - and had the personality to match: “I only appear to be wacko – in reality I’m much more,” he chirped.

Not surprisingly Raymer used his enormous chip advantage – and a little luck – to bludgeon the other players out of the game. It took just over 8 hours of play on the final table before, on hand 113, he knocked out David Williams, a 24-year-old student, into 2nd place.

While Williams consoled himself with his $3.5 million for coming second - the same as last year’s winner – Raymer slipped on the famous bracelet, posed for pictures by the truly awesome stack of cash he’d just won and summed up the tournament like this:

“I played the best poker of my life and I got as lucky as I’ve ever gotten in my life for such a sustained period of time.

“I was able to advance past a lot of great, great players. It’s a dream come true."

The massive increase in player numbers seen in the main World Championship event was reflected throughout all 33 tournaments in the WSOP. Total tournament prize money was an enormous $49 million – more than double last year’s $22 million which was itself a record for the event.

Plans are already being drawn up for next year’s WSOP, which is once again expected to shatter all records as the popularity of poker continues to grow on the internet.

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, which owns the rights to the tournament, has ended speculation by confirming the buy in for the 2005 main event will remain at $10,000.

But the company has signalled its intent to move the bulk of the tournament to the Rio Hotel Casino due to its larger capacity and the continued growth expected in tournament hopefuls.

In a compromise move though Harrah’s has said the final two days of the main event will again be held at Binion's, thus maintaining a link to the casino that has hosted the tournament since it started in 1970.