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Even the Lebanese Have a Champ |
Think poker's gotten as big as it can get? That there could possibly be no more growth in an industry that has swelled so much in the past 5 years that practically everyone and their mother (literally) is showing up at the table? Just when you begin to think that perhaps poker couldn't get any more popular, something else comes along: and this week, that news is the reporting of the first ever poker championship in Lebanon.
Yeah, Lebanon. Last month, just before the turn of the new year, Lebanese franchise Casino du Liban hosted the largest poker tournament ever run in the Middle East. 126 players showed up to enter in the two day event, which ran from December 27-28, 2007. The buy-in was a $5,000 flat entry, resulting in a $620,000 prize pool: not bad at all for a new competition.
The tournament was conquered by poker amateur Walid Bou Habib, who won the $200,000 first prize and rights to the title of First Lebanese Poker Champion.
Poker had been a recently added accomodation at the Casino du Luban; they'd only been dealing poker in a new section of the house since June of 2007. This event brought quite a bit of publicity for the event as 750 players crowded in the stands to watch. And the Lebanese don't mess around. Bellydancers and a live band were brought in to liven the proceedings. Perhaps other countries could benefit from bringing in some dancing ladies to spice up the view of men sitting around a poker table...
Of the 126 entrants, 96 were ousted on the first day, leaving the final 30 to battle for final table rights on day two. Those who did make the final table included a string of unknowns like no other (Majid El Khoury,
Walid Bou Habib,
Omar Geadah,
Michel Helou,
Mohammed Seblini,
Ramez Haddad,
Yuri Kerzhapkin,
Bassam El Najjar, and
Maen El Hachem), leading this news reporter to think maybe next year he'll take an intercontinental flight to try a become another country's new poker frontman.
So once again, poker is alive and well in the world, and spreading even further than most can imagine, and 2008 continues to be a year of record setting not just for the massive online action that's been piling up, but for places we might have never considered.
February 12, 2008 |
