Day 2 Concludes
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!