tilted behaviour

The day had finally arrived to see me vacate Las Vegas for another year.

I packed what was left of my belongings before heading to the Premium Factory Outlets for one final time (I think this makes it four or five visits). I picked up some BOSE headphones for Kirsty while getting two-pairs of American basketball shorts . . . American you may ask? Well basically all our shorts back home don’t have pockets, while the ones purchased here have pockets as they are more for casual wear than play (unless you’re allowed to play with pockets in the States).

I returned to the Golden Nugget and ordered a shuttle to the airport to arrive nice and early at the United check-in. I had to pay a baggage fee, but was quickly on my way to Los Angeles.

It took me a while to find the Virgin Australia terminal, and after they also slapped with a US$100 excess baggage fee I was finally through to our gate where I sat there twiddling my thumbs for several hours.

Like normal I fell asleep straight away after being granted my request of the centre row left aisle and was fortunate enough to have a spare seat between me and a striking 20-something brunette.

After snoring my way to Sydney I nearly (along with many others) nearly missed our connecting flight to Melbourne, but after packing a transfer bus and rushing through the terminal I was only one flight and one bus ride away from home.

I rushed through Melbourne airport as I knew I only had a slim chance of catching the bus down to Geelong – otherwise I would have to wait over an hour for the next one.

I made it on time and was on my way home after another enjoyable stay in Las Vegas (and partly Lebanon) that lasted one day shy of two months.

GG Las Vegas and Lebanon . . . see you both soon!

Flying over the French countryside as the sun rose was an awe-inspiring sight!

Not only did it reinforce the feelings of wanting to head to Paris, but it also presented a strong case for hiring a car and driving round the countryside experience what France really has to offer – the food, the people and the beautiful landscape.

We touched down in Charles De Gaulle and flirted with the idea of making our way into the city to visit the Eiffel Tower, but after a very tilted Eric threw a tantrum we decided just to camp it out in the terminal for four hours instead of risking missing our flight.

With only a few Euro’s in our – well really Eric’s – possession we were unable to dine out on drinks to satisfy our travel dehydration, and instead just occupied ourselves by using the internet and relaxing before another long flight back to the States.

One of the things I always do when I travel is board last. First of all I hate standing in line for no reason, as there is no benefit to being on the plane early. Secondly if I’m going to be flying for hours, I might as well spend as little time as possible on the actual plane.

Following this philosophy both Eric and I made our way to the ticket ripper lady (insert actual job title here) and as Eric was cleared I was halted . . . this is how it all went down.

“Excuse me sir, do you have a return ticket?”
“Yes I do”
“Can I please see it?”
“No it’s in my other suitcase in the USA”
“Oh, ok, why?”
“Cause I didn’t feel the need to bring two suitcases with me”
“Well, I’m sorry sir, but you’re going to have to show us the ticket otherwise you cannot fly”
“Ummm . . . well why is it your issue here as I’m heading to the USA?”
“It’s just a procedure sir”
“Ok, well my flight is Virgin Australia Flight 2 at midnight on Wednesday”
“I’m sorry sir, but we need to actually see the ticket to let you on the plane”
“You gotta be f**king kidding me!”
“It is just procedure sir”
“Well do you have access to the internet for me?”
“No sir”
“Then how do you expect me to show you?”
“That is your problem sir”

A few minutes went by as I continued to argue with why they need to see my ticket as I wasn’t returning to Australia for a few days, before being hit with this one.

“Sir, if you don’t show me your ticket then these two people will be taking your seat . . . it’s ok, we have another flight in nine hours though”
“You f**king kidding me?”

I booted my laptop up, paid €30 to access the internet and showed them my e-ticket as the lady counted down to just five seconds.

Finally on the flight following the Charles De Gaulle hell!

You would have expected everything that happened in Charles De Gaulle to be the end of my hassles for the day, but it would all happen again when we touched down in Salt Lake City.

Waiting to pass through immigration I began to notice that it was taking a little longer than expected. After waiting for five minutes the immigration officer asked me to take a seat while he called his supervisor.

Eventually I was called into an area closed off to normal access and was grilled by a security guard.

“What were you doing in Lebanon?”
“What are you doing in the USA?”
“Where are you staying?”
“How do you know that person?”
“How do you know the person you are travelling with?”

I got asked these question at least ten times each – no joke – and everytime the answer was the same.

Ten minutes into the questioning a few guards walked into the room and put on rubber gloves.

. . . GULP . . .

“Excuse me sir, can you please come in this room?”

The door opened, and all I could see from where I was seated was four white walls in a small room.

. . . GULP . . .

I stood up in preparation to be defiled, only to see that the room contained a desk and a computer. No glove was needed as I was grilled with a few more questions before being let go.

Both Eric and I raced to catch our flight back to Las Vegas, and we made it just in time!

Returning to Las Vegas, we checked into the Golden Nugget courtesy of the second placing in the Howard and Suzie Lederer Celebrity Charity Tournament a few weeks previously.

I enjoyed a swim and a spa before relaxing the night away.

Not wanting to head to bed straight away, both Eric and I decided that a nice beer in the pool would be exactly what the doctor ordered . . . regardless of the fact that it was 5am!

Splashing round in the pool for a few hours we saw the sun rise over the mountains and headed to breakfast early before making our way back to the room to sleep a few hours.

Managing only a few hours sleep I awoke and began packing straight away so that I could check out in time and also meet up with Joe and Eric. With hunger being the first thing to tick off on the agenda, Joe took us to a restaurant to sample some local cuisine.

We ordered a feast that featured Hommus, other dips and breads as well as something different . . . a traditional Hookah – which is not to be confused with a paid lady, but a glass pipe for smoking.

Although turned off at first, I gave it a go but couldn’t really taste anything and let both Eric and Joe enjoy it.

Once we finished lunch we took a drive up the mountains to a Go-Karting track where we raced round for a few minutes. It wasn’t really fair as both Eric and Joe drew slightly faster karts then me, and to top it off, this 12-year old girl kept lapping me as her kart was flying at 1000 miles an hour!

We jumped back in the car and headed further up the mountains to enjoy the sights and surrounds of Lebanon. It’s nearly impossible to explain in words, so instead I’m just going to post an assortment of pictures . . . enjoy!

Photos I captured on the last day

Photos Eric captured on the last day

As the sun had set and our flight was approaching we stopped by a bar and sampled a beer or two before saying our unfortunate goodbyes to Joe as we boarded our plane back to Las Vegas via Paris and Salt Lake City.

Once the four-way deal was agreed and the action had sped up, Nabil Matta thought his 9♥ 8♠ was good enough to flip for the title . . . and as the 9♠ A♦ 8♥ J♥ 3♠ board ran out, another champion was crowned as another successful tournament was wrapped up.

No one would have expected Lebanon to be the next launching ground for a highly successful poker tournament. But after exceeding all expectations for both the local and international brigade, expect one of the most beautiful cities in the world to potentially be the next boom region for poker as I recap the tournament with The Eight Points of Enlightenment: Lebanese Poker Championships.

1 – Internet Issues: Being on the tournament trail as a PokerNews blogger, the one important aspect at any tournament is having quick access to the internet. At many points over the WSOP we experienced severe internet problems due to the high traffic – and at the Casino Du Liban it was no exception.
We struggled to get much of a connection for the duration of the tournament, and were unable to upload photos until returning to the hotel at the end of the day. For some reason however Skype worked perfectly fine and we were able to send hands through to fellow colleges and friends to help us assist with keeping the blog up to PokerNews standard.

2 – Friendly Staff and Players: Heading to a tournament you are never sure of what to expect, and heading to Lebanon had us both fearing for our lives and sitting with nervous jitters at heading to a new country. Once there we were never greeted with a frown or a moan, but just the upmost sincerity, politeness and respect from random people down the street, hotel staff and especially the tournament dealers and staff along with the players.
It could be understood that we may have been looked upon weirdly as we were two random foreigners walking round and talking to everyone doing tasks and asking questions that were not the norm to them. However, once they understood why we were there, they were more than willing to help out and acted over and above what was asked to assist us in any matter.

3 – Too Relaxed: Lebanese culture is a very relaxed one – similar to most countries that follow the Mediterranean lifestyle – and although this may be enjoyable and pleasant at times, it can be a downfall when dealing with a US$2,000,000 tournament.
Registration was pretty standard as players wondered up to the allocated collection area (based besides our blogging desk) and handed over USD or a credit card (first for me to see credit card transactions on the spot) to cover their buy-in.
However once the money was counted, collected and bundled up it was just put in the first drawer of the desk – where anyone had access as it was simply a desk near the tournament area. Every time it opened we couldn’t help but see our gaze slowly turn to see the wads and wads of US$100 bills collecting in this somewhat easily penetrable drawer. If the tournament backend (registration etc) was more professional then the whole tournament becomes more professional and players from around the world will be attracted – think of the Aussie Millions development since the early 2000’s.

4 – Dinner: With the Casino Du Liban slicing off close to US$150,000 off the prizepool, it was no surprise that dinner was an outstanding spread. The tournament was actually held in La Salle Des Ambassadeurs, and at dinnertime the left and right areas just off the stage were filled with buffet trays filled with all types of meats, potatoes, vegies etc. In the middle area there were tables filled with cold cuts salads, bread, dips and desert to satisfy the staff, players and supporters over and over again.
At the back of the room sat enough tables to seat everyone, with waiters at your disposable for anything that you may have needed. All in all it was a terrific set-up keeping the players more than happy . . . as well as the bloggers!

5 – No Preliminary / Side Events: Successful tournaments normally have a few things in common; and one of them is normally a strong schedule of preliminary and / or side events. However the Lebanese Poker Championships didn’t seem to have much in place apart from the random US$5,000 sit-n-go starting up.
With money not being too much of an issue (from many observations) you only need to run a couple of worthwhile events on the side of the Main Event, or over the days before to really push the event to the forefront.
In my opinion a US$5,000 freeze-out would work really well the day before and maybe a US$1,000 rebuy could work on day three when everyone was there watching the final table anyway (they actually ran a US$1,000 freeze-out that got 65 runners). Who knows maybe even next year they may do a US$25,000 High Rollers Event a few days earlier to boost the prestige of the 2010 Lebanese Poker Championships.

6 – Tournament Restrictions: The capacity of the tournament was supposed to be 200 due to the number of tables that they had access to in the Salle Des Ambassadeurs, but when the tournament was eventually locked out the number snuck to 208. Only a few tables were ten-handed at the start of play, but by making all of them ten-handed and also re-structuring the formation of the room you may be able to sneak an additional table in to see the overall capacity number be increased to around 230.
There is no doubt that next year will see the 2009 number eclipsed as poker is only going to continue to grow in the region, and along with the expected exposure Nabil Matta will receive, hopefully a new swarm of players take to the felt.

7 – Final Table Set-Up: When day three rolled round the staff at Casino Du Liban had drawn the curtain over the stage (the place where the majority of the tables had been housed) and played from the last 28 to the final nine in the lower sections. Behind the curtain they were busy building a three-sectioned and multi-level seating area to surround the new and world-class final table.
Once the final nine had been set, entrance music, announcements and a small array of indoor fireworks were let off and action was underway. The final table itself was a bright red with green trim and was doused with more than adequate lighting along with two TV’s and projection screen to showcase the live streaming.
Casino Du Liban successfully made the final table a theatrical experience for both player and onlooker, and in my opinion this should always be the case!

8 – Safe: The fear of going to Lebanon wasn’t the fact the act that we wouldn’t know anyone in the field, but actually whether or not we would be safe there. The answer . . . a definite YES!
Never once did we ever feel at risk or worried about our safety. Having a driver helped considerably, but this is just a testament to the Casino Du Liban for trying to provide adequate resources to effectively do our jobs.
Over the past few years the media has done a great job of infiltrating our minds with the notion that the Middle East is a place to stay away from and fear, but you can’t really judge until you visit.
For me the experience of heading to Lebanon not only awoke me to the beauty of the country; both its people and sights, but also that Western civilisation is so easy manipulated into believing the jargon that is put to us from the media. There is no doubt that I will return to Lebanon, and most likely some of the neighbouring countries, very soon whether it be for a poker tournament or a holiday, as it is one part of the world that is definitely worth exploring!

Another tournament down, but another is just on the horizon!

Finally returning home after two months abroad to cover the ANZPT Queensland Main Event followed by the Victorian Poker Championships, before a possible trip to Macau for the APPT.

So stay tuned to Tilted Behaviour as the poker world never stops!

With Day Three upon us, we were hoping to fly through the field as we played down to just one.

However that wouldn’t be the case as the final table wouldn’t be formed till just a tad before 11pm with mainly locals and a few crowd favourites amongst them.

I managed to slap a PokerNews patch on chip leader Nicolas Zakem, but it wouldn’t bring him any luck as he fell early in seventh. The final four players made a chop, and once Nabil Matta’s 9♥ 8♠ managed to outflop Omar Gaedah, we crowned the first Lebanese Poker Champion – good for US$606,000.

With it being 5am and our last night in Lebanon, we were unsure of exactly what to do.

Joe picked us up and organised to come by in the afternoon to make sure our last day was interesting, and with that we were back at the hotel pleased with the way we covered the event for both PokerNews and the Casino Du Liban.

Day Two of the Lebanese Poker Championships saw only 111 players return from the original 207 starters.

Nenad Medic and Raymond Rahme were on the short stacks while Joe Hachem was on the rail. Lebanese-American Chris Karagulleyan was sitting up amongst the chip leaders for the start of play, but started slipping after his late arrival.

Intentions of making the final table weren’t realised when the Tournament Director pulled the pin at around 4am with 28 players remaining, and only seven eliminations needed until the remaining players made the money.

On a side note, our driver Joe hooked us up with some music, and one of the tracks is this awesome one called Stereo Love by Edward Maya . . . check it out, it rocks!

Walking into the Casino Du Liban you are greeted by a grand stairwell that takes you up to the La Salle Des Ambassadeurs where the tournament is held.

Once inside the Salle Des Ambassadeurs it appears more like a theatre-styled room with tables and chairs for the patrons rather than a place to hold a poker tournament. However both the stage and an area below it were decked out with over twenty tables for the upcoming 2009 Lebanese Poker Championships!

Arriving for Day One of the Lebanese Poker Championships both me and Eric were always concerned for both a suitable place to work from and a strong internet connection.

We were assigned a desk right next to one of the tables which meant for easy access to the floor, but the internet was a major issue. The wireless connection was horrendously slow and it would take minutes to load a post or chip counts, and consequently forced us to back up everything after experiencing some drop outs. Photos were never a chance, and we decided to postpone them until we returned to the hotel.

Chris Karagulleyan, Raymond Rahme, Nenad Medic and Joe Hachem were our only spotted notables until we were handed a seating draw and shown some of the ‘big names’ in Lebanon poker.

With our chip counts page looking decent and our blog filling out nicely after we expected only a handful of posts, we slaved through the day watching some interesting poker, but the highlight was easily the feast they put on at dinner.

Two identical buffets were set up along with two tables full of breads, dips, cheese, desert, fruit and salads to accompany the many meats on offer. Me and Eric tucked into the feast during the one hour dinner break as we were greeted with constant service by the many waiters willing to top up our drinks and take our plates.

The day finished just after 2am, and as soon as the last post had been entered, our driver Joe was outside and taking us back to the hotel for another night.

I slept pretty well, and after rolling over to see the bedside clock read 7am I decided to get up anyway and head to the pool.

Wondering down to the lobby I eventually find the door to the outside pool area where I’m greeted by bright sunshine and absolutely no one.

I scope out the view and snap a few photos before disturbing the perfectly still water. I walk and paddle round for a little before exiting and returning to my room to prepare for breakfast with Eric.

The Regency Palace pool and views into the Mediterranean Sea

We call our driver Joe to come pick us up after breakfast and we were on our way to Downtown and a shopping centre.

It was Beirut’s number one place to shop, but in comparison to some of the places in Australia and the USA, it was fairly small but satisfied the needs of an average shopper. Eric grabbed a Starbucks as we made our way to the Casino Du Liban to see what was outlined for tomorrow.

As we walked up to the registration desk we were greeted by the most gorgeous woman we had both seen in a long time. She had her dark wavy hair tied up, and along with her dark features and sexy broken-english accent we both were absolutely mesmerised . . . and this was all before she smiled to lure us in further with her pearly whites and all-round stunning looks.

(Note – even through all my reminders, Eric was unable to snap a photo of her, so sorry about the let down)

She gave us our invites to the Launching Party later that night, and after Eric’s failed attempts to invite her, we were on our way back home to get some rest.

We drove to the EddeSands Resort at around 9pm and after being greeted and welcomed into the party we were amazed at the party they were putting on.

Basically EddeSands is a beach resort that has numerous pools, cabanas and lounge areas where anyone can attend and just relax and enjoy themselves under the great Lebanon weather.

Based around a large pool, there was a buffet on one side and over 50 tables on the other. At one end of the pool was a poker table and stage set up for some of the later festivities.

Eric, Joe and myself sat down and grabbed a few drinks as the crowd of gorgeous woman and balding old men walked in to fill the tables around us, and once all the introductions and welcomes were done we all hit the buffet.

An assortment of meats, dips, breads, sides, salads and pretty much anything you could think of was spread out, along with a dessert tray to satisfy any sweet tooth, and after a few plates and a few more drinks were more than full as the fireworks hit the air.

Both me and Eric had decided that a late-night dip in the hotel pool was a must after the temperature seemed to climb as the night continued . . . and it was worth it as we swam until the wee hours of 3am before turning it in for the night.