Home / Poker News July 2009 / Lebanese Poker Championship – Day 1 report
Lebanese Poker Championship – Day 1 report
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-07-27 09:28
The first ever Lebanese Poker Championship was a huge success from the get-go. Lebanese-born Australian poker pro and WSOP Main Event Champion, Joe Hachem threw a huge party before the event kicked off to get the word out there and to have as many players show up as possible at Casino du Liban for the event. The room capacity, initially set to 200 was soon reached and even exceeded as 7 more players were eventually crammed into the room. The organizers created the extra space by turning some tables into 10-handed ones.
Thus, the event shattered the previous Lebanese record for the largest poker game, and even though the entry wasn’t at all cheap (participants had to cough up $10,000 each) besides the record number of players, the first ever Lebanese Poker Championship managed to attract a few “name” pros as well. Raymond Rahme was one of these pros, but Nenad Medic and Chris Karagulleyan tagged along as well.
Hassan Fares was the first victim of the first day. He was unlucky enough to pick up a pair of Ks in a hand in which Adham Homsi was dealt a couple of Aces. To add insult to injury, Homsi further improved on the river by spiking another A for the set. That loss left Fares with only 750 chips, making it impossible for him to climb out of that hole, so he busted out for good a few hands later.
His elimination started a spree of bust-outs, which reduced the size of the field to 164 by the time the first dinner break came about. Hachem was among the survivors past the dinner break, however, he would not see the end of the day at the green felt. Like Fares’ elimination, his was a two-phased one as well. He first dropped most of his chips when he turned a set on a board of Ad,2d,5h,5d,6d. The four card diamond flush on the table hid a rather obvious danger though, especially that the pot was a 3-way one. Sure enough, both his opponents hit flushes, one of them had the higher one though with Qc,9d and scooped the pot. In the wake of this hand, Hachem was left crippled. He picked up an Ac, 10c a few hand later and wasted no time in putting his fledgling tournament life onto the line. Adham Homsi called him with K,K. the flop gave Hachem another Ace, but it was a double edged sword as it also gave Hamsi a set. The turn and the river bricked out sealing the WSOP champ’s fate.
When all the dust settled at the end of the day, only 116 players were left alive, the Casino du Liban no longer too small to accommodate them. Nicholas Zachem finished with the chip lead, having amassed over 150,000 chips. Mark Demirijian followed him on the provisional leader board. Baba Oum and Chris Karagulleyan finished on fat stacks as well. Raymond Rahme and Nenad Medic had a much tougher going though, and they both finished on short-stacks, barely surviving to day 2.
From the buy-ins and number of participants, one thing is clear in regards to this event: it will offer the biggest payouts in the history of Lebanese poker.
