Hearing terms like “leak,” “flop,” and “river,” one might think the conversation’s about fishing. Those words, however, are part of the lexicon of Texas hold ’em, the poker game gaining currency across the globe and becoming increasingly popular in Lebanon.
The game has been popular at the Casino Du Liban for years, and later this month Zadi Hobeika is launching Lebanon’s first poker school to teach the game many argue involves far more skill than chance.
Texas hold ’em originated in the US – allegedly in Robson, Texas, in the early 1900s – but only gained world-wide recognition in the last decade. The basics are simple: each player gets two cards face-down and five cards are placed face-up in the middle of the table. Players use the so called “community cards” to build the best five-card hand, and the winner takes all the money bet during the course of the hand.
Hold ’em enthusiasts argue that to play right – and win consistently – the game requires considerable calculation: knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em based on probabilities, seating position at a table and the style of play employed by opponents, among other things.
Seated in his freshly painted office next to the school’s only classroom on the eighth floor of a building in Zalka – just north of Beirut – Hobeika explained that the idea for Game Theory, the name of his poker academy, came while he was getting his MBA in France earlier this year.
“There was a fire in the student residence [parking lot],” he said. “So the Internet connection was cut for a while. Everyone ended up going to the school to use the Internet. […] There were about 10 people and six or seven had a poker screen open [on their computers].”
Hobeika knew he wanted to start a business in Lebanon, so he began looking into poker. After learning the rules, he assessed the local market, finding the most interest evident on Facebook.
Texas hold ’em applications on the social networking sight are legion, the most popular – Texas HoldEm Poker – had nearly 19 million active monthly users in early November. The folks at Facebook told Hobeika there were 40,000 users with IP addresses in Lebanon playing hold ’em games, so he started to advertise.
Hobeika initially wanted to launch the school in late October but has pushed back the start date to November 16 and is offering reduced rates to boost enrollment. Game Theory offers beginner, intermediate and advanced classes at $250 for 10 hours of instruction as well as a bare-bones, four-hour introductory course.
Most classes will also include Texas hold ’em tournaments on Saturdays, but students won’t be playing for cash. Commercially, only the Casino Du Liban, which has offered Texas hold ’em tournaments since June 2007, can legally hold cash games, explained Lara Hafez, the casino’s marketing manager. Illegal games in places like hotels do occur, she said, and the casino works with the Ministry of Interior to stop them.
Cash games played online or in someone’s home, however, are legal and common, she said. While the casino wants to draw these players in, Hafez said, it lacks a dedicated poker room because of a dispute among members of the Board of Directors.
Eventually, Hobeika said, Game Theory would like to open a franchise location inside the casino. That step, however, does not seem imminent.
For now, both Hafez and Hobeika said they have their work cut out for them. Most Lebanese, they said, still view poker players as stodgy old men wasting money while sipping whiskey and smoking cigars with no thought to strategy.
“The main challenge,” Hobeika said, “will be to break this stereotype image of poker in Lebanon.”