2009 Lebanese Poker Championship

$10,000 Championship Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info

2009 Lebanese Poker Championship

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
98
Prize
$606,000
Event Info
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$1,925,100
Entries
207
Level Info
Level
29
Blinds
50,000 / 100,000
Ante
10,000

Business Meeting

The three remaining players have just stepped away from the table for a minute or two to have a friendly chat. After an exchange of handshakes and pats on the back, the men returned to the table all smiles. We're just two eliminations away from crowning our first ever Lebanese National Champion of poker!

No Action for Saab

Nabil Matta limped in from the small blind, and big blind Imad Saab raised it up to 450,000. Matta folded showing pocket deuces, and Saab flashed his ace-queen before stacking the blinds and antes.

The next time around the table, Matta decided to just let Saab have a walk in the big blind. "Ugh, are you kidding me?" asked Saab, turning over {A-Hearts} {A-Spades} and again stacking up just the blinds and antes.

Level: 29

Blinds: 50,000/100,000

Ante: 10,000

Walid Rizkallah Eliminated In 5th Place (US$134,800)

Walid Rizkallah - 5th Place
Walid Rizkallah - 5th Place
Nabil Matta opened to 250,000 from the cutoff and found two folds before Walid Rizkallah moved all in for 920,000 from the big blind with Matta making the call.

Rizkallah: {A-Hearts}{Q-Clubs}
Matta: {K-Hearts}{K-Spades}

Before the flop fell down both Rizkallah and Matta exchanged words in a mix or Arabic and French and shook hands as a sign of good luck.

The flop of {4-Diamonds}{Q-Spades}{8-Hearts} would see Rizkallah gain a few additional outs, but when the turn landed the {8-Spades} and river the {4-Spades} he was headed to the rail.

Rizkallah picked up a healthy US$134,800 for his 5th place finish as Matta soars to over 3,700,000 in chips.

Tags: Nabil MattaWalid Rizkallah

Geadah Doubles Through Saab

Imad Saab opened to 350,000 from under the gun only to have Omar Geadah push all for 490,000 next to speak. The blinds passed and Saab made the call wishing his opponent good luck.

Saab: {6-Hearts}{6-Diamonds}
Geadah: {J-Clubs}{J-Diamonds}

The board ran out {8-Spades}{4-Spades}{8-Diamonds}{10-Clubs}{K-Hearts} to see Geadah double through to 1,120,000 as Saab slips to 800,000 and change.

Tags: Imad SaabOmar Geadah

Treading Lightly

It must be noted that the current state of play is slowly right up.

Barely a flop this level, and many walks to the big blind.

In comparison to the state of play during the day this is very surprising. However when you look at the tournament a little deeper you will see that there are only a little over 60 big blinds still in play.

With each player sitting on an average of 12, it is quite understandable that play is tightening up as they jockey for position.

Fadi Doubles

Double the pleasure for Kamar
Double the pleasure for Kamar
Walid Rizkallah opened to 200,000 from under the gun before Fadi Kamar shipped it all in for his last 340,000 next to speak.

The remaining four players passed as Rizkallah made the call.

Rizkallah: {Q-Spades}{J-Spades}
Kamar: {A-Hearts}{K-Diamonds}

The board ran out {4-Hearts}{4-Spades}{6-Clubs}{3-Hearts}{6-Diamonds} to see Kamar double through to 830,000 as Rizkallah slips to 800,000 in chips.

Tags: Fadi KamarWalid Rizkallah