BY TOM SOMACH

Dr. Jerry Yang, a 39-year-old psychologist and social worker from Temecula, Calif., USA, has won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event in Las Vegas–and the $8.25 million prize.

He becomes the latest rags-to-riches story in the storied history of the WSOP, where unknown poker players are often plucked from obscurity and suddenly thrust into the spotlight of worldwide attention, celebrity and fame.

Yang, born in poverty in Laos in Southeast Asia, emigrated to the USA when he was a child.

One of the only people at the main event final table who didn’t describe himself as a professional poker player, he’s only been playing the game for two years.

“I can’t describe the feeling,” Yang said after winning the title. “The happiness inside was just tremendous. I was tearful, but at the same time, I was very, very happy. There are no words that can describe that kind of feeling.”

Going into final-table play, at noon Tuesday Las Vegas time, Yang had only the eighth-most chips among nine players.

But slowly and meticulously, like a deft sniper with sharpshooter accuracy, Yang one-by-one eliminated most of the field, until only two players–he and Tuan Lam, another Asian immigrant–were left.

Lam, who was born in Vietnam and now lives in Canada, has a similar life story to Yang.

But it soon became apparent that their luck wasn’t similar, as the pair went head-to-head in a final showdown at 4 a.m., 16 grueling hours after final-table play had commenced.

On the last hand, Lam, with about one-fifth of Yang’s chip stack, went all-in with an ace and a queen.

Yang called with a pair of eights.

The flop came up queen, five and nine.

Now with a pair of queens, it appeared as is Lam would win the hand and start mounting a comeback.

But it wasn’t to be, as the turn card was a seven and the river card a six, doing nothing for Lam but giving Yang a hand-winning and title-winning straight.

In all, Yang ended up eliminating seven of his eight final-table opponents in head-to-head showdowns.

For his runnerup effort, Lam earned about half what Yang did–$4,840,981.

Coming in third was South African Ray Rahme, who took home $3,048,025.

Finishing in fourth was Alex “The Mad Russian” Kravchenko of Russia, who wasn’t too mad about leaving with $1,852,721.

Fifth was Jon Kalmar of the U.K., who, before final-table play started, was the consensus favorite of offshore sportsbooks to win the title.

He picked up $1,255,069.

In sixth spot was American Hevad Khan, who earned $956,243.

Ending in seventh place was American Lee Childs, who garnered $705,229.

Finishing eighth was American Lee Watkinson, who snagged $585,699.

Coming in ninth was Philip Hilm, who was the chip-leader when final-table play began.

A Denmark native who lives in the U.K., he earned $525,934.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)