This is going to be hopefully the biggest tournament held at the local casinio here. Its been advertized all around the country that Joe hashem is going to participate so you never know, many random donks might show up. Also Satellites are running every week and hopefully there will be a good turnout.

If any of you need any information or are interested i will be more than willing to answer questions. For you poker players its definitely one of the most plus ev tournaments you will ever play, and it would be a chance to visit a country i am sure most of you have never seen before.

Summer in Lebanon (as long as there is tranquility) is an absolute blast

Hope to see you there

www.cdl.com.lb is the casino's home page, nothing much to write home about, buts its pretty decent i guess.

wow, there's a casino in Lebanon?? is this the first such tourney to be held there?

if so, 10k (I'm guessing USD) is too high for a BI. how much of a field is expected and is there only one 'main event' kinda dealy or do they have multiple tourneys running like the WSOP?

u obviously have never played poker in lebanon, 5k SNGs where 3 people open shove first hand is a common occurance

pardon my ignorance! that's cool that such events are hosted there and that there's a full fledged casino.

did go through the website - seems promising but I don't think I'll be going

the site doesnt seem to work?

This is true, but how would you know lol!

As for the site it seems to be down. I have just heard today that hashem is bringing along 10 fellow players to play the ME...

There have been tournaments in the casino for the past two years or so, and two past main events, but both were 5k freezouts

This is the first which is 10k

Only two weeks away, and satellites running at full steam.... cash games are only available on electronic tables unfortunately but i will organzie some home games if there is enough interest....

It seems as though the tourney will sell out at the 200-player cap.

PokerNews will also be doing live reporting at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting, so if anyone wants some close coverage (as the notables in the field will probably be on the small side . . .) make sure to get into contact with the bloggers that are working.

Looks like it will be a great event with a 30k starting bank, 60-minute levels and blinds starting at 25-50.

See you all there!!!

if i had known i might have gone.
will sammy and freddy be there?

If we are talking about Sammy K...dude is da man. Played at his table for 2 days straight at WSOP one year.

GL to those playing.

Joe Hachem and his entourage are here (excluding Tony) and so is Raymond Rahme.

Farha barely played a tournament at the WSOP, so i doubt he'll come down for this.

No sign of Freddy yet either.

Courtesy of PokerNews
http://www.pokernews.com/live-report...ip/main-event/

That's a Wrap; Day 1 is History

Day 1 of the largest poker tournament ever assembled in Lebanon is now in the books. The evening began with 207 runners each putting up the $10,000 buyin, exceeding the stated capacity by seven players. The guarantee of $1,000,000 was easily eclipsed, and very nearly double that amount of cash is up for grabs to the remaining players. When the clock ticked down on the eighth and final level of Day 1, it appears that 112 players still have chips left, earning them a seat for Day 2 tomorrow.

We didn't expect to see too many familiar faces here, and indeed there weren't a lot of them. Of course, we did have Lebanese native Joe Hachem with us, though his tournament lasted just a couple short hours before he ran his short-stacked Ac10c into pocket kings. Good game, Champ. Despite that most notable exit, we do still have three very familiar names who'll be joining us again tomorrow. Nenad Medic has had trouble getting things going today, and he'll be on a short stack when he returns tomorrow. It looks like a full night's sleep will do the pro well; he's been yawning and nodding off since the dinner break ended. Another short-stacked notable is Raymond Rahme, part of a strong South African contingent here at the LPC.

Our last truely familiar face is not at all short stacked. Chris Karagulleyan jumped out of the gate today with an early double up, and his stack has been moving in the right direction since then. He's been in and out of the chip lead all day, and he'll bag up 139,200 chips to finish the day, putting him within arm's length of the chip lead.

That's a decent stack, but everyone is chasing another man. When Karagulleyan hasn't been in the lead today, Nicolas Zakem has been. Zakem has been steamrolling his competition for most of the late evening, becoming the first player to crest 150,000 shortly after the dinner break. At the end of play tonight, he's stuffed his tiny little chip bag with a whopping 157,000 chips, good enough to earn himself the title of overnight chip leader. A few players began to close the gap as the night pressed on though, and Mark Demirijian, Adham Homsi, and Sherif Zacca are among those within striking distance of Zakem.

Play will resume at 4:00pm tomorrow, and we expect to be in for a long day. The tentative plan is to play down to our final table of nine, but the staff has hinted at the fact that we may only make it down to the last two tables before we run out of moonlight. In any event, that's all she wrote for Day 1. Thanks for joining us here; we'll see you tomorrow!


Chip Leader Nicolas Zakem

Day 2 Concludes

Day 2 of the Lebanese Poker Championship arrived amidst great anticipation today, the middle stage of the largest tournament ever held in this region.

The action kicked off just about twelve hours ago with 111 players still in the running with the lofty intentions of grinding down to the final table tonight. As it turns out, we really never had a chance of achieving that feat. After a very full night of cards, we still have 28 players -- more than three full tables -- left with chips, and those remaining had no intentions of missing out on the final day. They'll be granted their wish as the tournament staff called the game at the end of the tenth level of the day.

The action on the felt was pretty deliberate and measured as the average stack sat well over 50 big blinds for the balance of the day. Things intensified a bit as the night wore on though, as the relative stacks began to get a bit shorter. Still, with a payday just becoming visible on the horizon, things ground to a halt for the last two levels as we broke just one table after dinner.

Along the way, we lost a few more of our notables. Nenad Medic never had any chips to work with, and he was sent home early in the day after losing a race with pocket sixes. South African pro Raymond Rahme lasted a bit longer than Medic, but he too became just another name in the long line of Day 2 victims, running his ace-king into pocket aces. EPT London Champion Joseph Mouawad would outlast them both, but he too would fall before all was said and done. Chris Karagulleyan did better still, although he was stuck in reverse all day and was eliminated following the dinner break. And lastly, we said farewell to Pamela Fawaz, the penultimate lady left in the field.

As far as ladies go, that leaves us with just Nadia Lahham who put it on cruise control today and coasted into Day 3 with a relatively short stack. Sherif Zacca held the lead for much of the day, putting on a dominant show with his well-timed aggression. A few late slip-ups will find him working from the back of the pack tomorrow though, finishing up well below average. The new title of chip leader goes to the dangerous Fadi Kamar who put on a dominating performance today. Kamar was never really in any danger against his competition, and at the end of the day, he's piled a whopping 642,000 chips into the barely-big-enough thin plastic bag. That equates to nearly three times the average stack and a full 10% of the total chips in play.

So that's all she wrote for Day 2. It looks like we're in for another long one tomorrow as we'll be playing this little game all the way out to the end. By this time tomorrow, we hope to be crowning our champion in the first ever Lebanese Poker Championship. Until then, goodnight from the Casino du Liban!


Chip Leader Fadi Kamar

THis hand happened right in front of me, and generally sums up the level of play that exists in this place.

From Pokernews.com (who did a fantastic job reporting)


"Catching the action on the flop of Ac 9d 9s, Nadia Lahham continued her preflop aggression by firing out 18,000 to find a check-call by Georges Ghassen.

The turn brought the As and Ghassen again checked to see Lahham fire 24,000. Ghassen quickly called and both players checked the Ad on the river.

Lahham tabled her 7h 7d to see her playing the board, and remarkably, Ghassen tabled his 7c 7s to chop the pot up!"


ANd the following is a good summary about how the tourament was run.... Excellent lay out great staff (except for the hiccup with the structure every once in a while) great ambiance and the most amazing pre tournament party that was ever held or will ever be held for any poker tournament

"Just Like Your Home Game
There's one more notable difference between this tournament here and many major tournaments around the world, revolving around the service personnel.

For the entire course of the three-day event, the players have had their every need catered to both at and away from the table. There is a large staff of cocktail servers who are eager to bring the libation of your choice to you tableside. In addition, they've also provided small bowls of nuts and finger foods for those on the felt.

Okay, so that part isn't especially unusual, although the waitresses are above average in their service capabilities. But what's more, there has been a huge spread of amazing food laid out for the duration of the event. The large auditorium we are playing in is doubling as a buffet and restaurant, and there are currently two enormous displays of appetizers of all sorts. There's more on the way too as the mile-long dinner nightly dinner buffet is just beginning to take shape, manned by another army of servers. There you'll find rice, pasta, fish, lamb, beef, vegetables, along with an assortment of salads, meats, cheeses, and an impressive tower of chop-licking deserts. All of this is spread out for the players and spectators free of charge, a truly gracious provision from the Casino du Liban.

If you like Lebanese food, you're truly missing out."

May i point out that the casino itself is quite mediocre, and i have no idea why they havent invested to build a better building in a better location. (they can easily make somethingworld class and they should)

Tournament just finished and as expected some random local donk won it because they outnumber any decent player 99-1, i of course bubbled gg me.

Congratulations to Nabil Matta, Winner of the Lebanese Poker Championship! (US$606,000)

The first ever (and likely first annual) Lebanese Poker Championship is in the books, and what a resounding success it was! Two hundred seven players came to the party that began on Thursday afternoon, far exceeding anyone's expectations. Those entrants put a prizepool worth nearly $2,000,000 up for grabs, again far surpassing the guarantee of one million.

Despite being in an area that is relatively new to poker, we did have a few notables with us this week, including 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem. The Lebanese native that they call simply "The Champ" was the host of sorts for this event, but his time on the felt would be cut short in the middle of Day 1. Raymond Rahme, Chris Karagulleyan, Nenad Medic, and EPT Champion Joseph Mouawad would all make it to Day 2 before falling by the wayside as well, leaving 28 players to return for the final day.

The pace for this third day of play was a bit streaky with periods of furious activity intermixed with long dry spells of stagnation. We didn't hit the final table until just about 11:00pm local time, and it took just about six hours of play to whittle our nine down to just one champion.

Tonight, that champion is Nabil Matta. Matta stormed through this final table and would take a commanding lead with six players left. None of those who came against him were able to dent that towering stack down the stretch, and he would polish off Omar Geadah in a quick and decisive heads-up match to lock up the trophy and the prize money.

A quick word needs to be said about the staff here at the Casino du Liban, and those of the tournament staff who came in from other areas of the world. Serious tournament poker is relatively new to this area of the globe, but the attention to detail and the spare-no-expense spirit that permeated this event brought it into the league of any premier tournament that you could match it against. In just a few short months, a whole crew of dealers, floor staff, public relations personnel and supervisors were assembled and trained, and they have taken on this responsibility with diligence and determination. It is truly thanks to them that this event was such a gigantic success, so from us and all of the players, a big thanks to you all.

That's all we have from Lebanon this year. Thanks for tuning in to follow along with our coverage, and we hope to see you back here next year to crown a new champion. Until then though, Nabil Matta will sit alone as the Lebanese National Champion of Poker!