Home / Poker News July 2009 / Lebanese Poker Championship – Day 3 report: Matta wins
Lebanese Poker Championship – Day 3 report: Matta wins
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-07-27 13:34
After two days of hard green felt action, the 28 surviving players re-convened at the Casino du Liban, to determine the winner of the first ever Lebanese Poker Championship. Having already disposed of “name” pros like Joseph Hachem, Nenad Medic and Raymond Rahme, the field was just 7 players short of the money bubble, which was set for 21st place.
Sure enough, the large buy-ins and the unprecedentedly large starting field guaranteed that the each of the top 3 finishers would take home more money than anyone else had ever won in Lebanon.
It didn’t take long for the money bubble to burst. The short-stacked players wasted no time in committing their last chips in the hopes of doubling up and many of them faded away on the barricades. The worst fate of all was that of Mark Demirjian was became the bubble boy, eliminated by Imad Saab. Demirjian shoved all his chips in on an A,7 he picked up. Saab made the call with K,J and the flop fell J, 4, 8 to give Saab the lead. The turn and the river failed to change anything and Demirjian was eliminated.
Tarek Sikias followed him to the rail in 21st place, Eddy Raffoul finished 20th, followed by Adham Mackie in 19th. Nicholas Zachem, still a large stack, disposed of Ziad Hany in 18th place. In this particular hand, the money went all in an the turn of a board made up of: 7,3,J,6. Having picked up a pair of 6s on the deal, Hany shoved all-in over a raise by Zachem. Zachem called him and showed 4,5 for the straight. The river card was irrelevant and Hany was done.
Nadia Lahham, the last remaining woman in the field, busted in 16th place, as her K,K suffered a bad beat from Sassine Ghazeleh’s Q,Q which caught a third Q on the turn.
Jimmy Habib became the final table bubble boy when his pocket 10s lost a race against Nicholas Zachem’s A,K. Thanks to a spree of eliminations, Zachem held a nice chip lead going into the final table action.
Kamal Bejjani was the first to be bounced from the final table. His A,9 was no match for Walid Rizkallah’s A,K.
Henry B, another player who’d started the final table on a large-stack, busted out in 8th place. Even more surprising was the elimination of Nicholas Zachem in 7th place. He bled his large stack away at the final table and eventually succumbed in a three-way hand against Matta and Rizkallah.
Fadi Kamar, another former chip leader, followed Zachem to the rail after his A,K lost the coin-flip against Matta’s pocket 10s.
Walid Rizkallah fell next, at the hands of Matta who was slowly but surely entering the final stretch of his tournament effort. It took two more eliminations though for the heads-up stage to be set. After Chadi Ojeil and Imad Saab were eliminated, the heads-up stage between Matta and Omar Geadah commenced.
By this stage though, Matta had built up too large a chip lead for Geadah to overcome. The final hand of the event saw Matta’s 8,9 go up against Geadah’s J,5. The flop gave Matta two pairs and the tournament was over. The winner’s cut of the prize-pool was a massive $606,000.
