The action continues here at the 2024 Merit Poker Carmen Series at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino with the $2,200 Merit Poker Cup, featung a $500,000 guarantee. The first of three starting flights begins today at 12:00 p.m. local time.
The event features a starting stack of 100,000 and will play eight 60-minute levels, with the survivors from each Day 1 advancing to Day 2 on March 29. Unlimited re-entries are available and late registration will be open until the end of Level 12, midway through Day 2.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all your live coverage needs for this starting flight as we bring you all the action starting from Level 3.
With three players seeing a board of J♠10♦9♠ and roughly 35,000 in the middle, Dinesh Alt checked from the small blind and Atanas Kodinov bet 35,000 from early position. David Vinayagamoorthy then moved all in from middle position, covering both players. Alt went into the tank for a couple minutes before folding and then Kodinov made the call to put himself at risk.
Atanas Kodinov: 9♣9♦
David Vinayagamoorthy: 8♦7♦
Both players had flopped a monster but Vinayagamoorthy was well ahead with a jack-high straight versus Kodinov's set of nines. The board did not pair on the 2♠ turn or Q♣ river and Kodinov was sent to the rail while Vinayagamoorthy scooped a colossal early pot.
Alt mentioned after the hand to one of his tablemates that he had folded the nut-flush draw which would have given him the winner on the turn.
A player in the hijack had opened and was called by Huseyin Akgul in the cutoff. A player in the big blind put in a three-bet that forced the original raiser out while Akgul made the call creating a pot of roughly 25,000 going into the flop.
The flop came 5♠4♦2♠ and the big blind fired a 10,000 continuation bet. Akgul made the call.
Akgul called another bet on the 8♦ turn, this time for 32,000.
On the K♥ river the big blind bet again for 45,000 and Akgul called the third barrel.
The big blind could only should A♥Q♣ for a bluff while Akgul tabled 7♣5♣ for just a pair of fives to take down a sizable pot.
Ceyhan Tezcan, who had recently been left very short-stacked, moved all in blind for 8,200 from under the gun. George Tomescu made the call from the cutoff to put Tezcan at risk.
Ceyhan Tezcan: K♦9♣
George Tomescu: Q♦10♦
Tezcan was ahead with king-high but Tomescu became the favorite with a massive draw on the J♦8♦5♥ flop. The 9♦ turn gave Tomescu a queen-high straight flush, leaving Tezcan drawing dead. After the 10♣ river was dealt Tezcan made his exit from the tournament area while Tomescu collected the last of his chips.
The first of three starting flights has come to a close for the $2,200 Merit Poker Cup here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. Day 1a attracted 192 entrants and 84 players survived until the end of the night to advance to Day 2.
Huseyin Akgul bagged the largest stack at the end of the night, finishing with 744,000, worth just under 298 big blinds. Akgul is most closely followed by Mukhtar Nasiradinov (728,000), Emad Ghadamian (660,000), Joseph Mouwad (541,000) and previous WPT champion Andrea Dato (521,000). Akgul made an excellent river call with a small pair midway through the day to put himself at the top of the counts and rode that momentum all the way to bagging a top stack at the end of the night.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Huseyin Akgul
Turkey
744,000
298
2
Mukhtar Nasiradinov
Russian Federation
728,000
291
3
Emad Ghadamian
Iran
660,000
264
4
Joseph Mouwad
Lebanon
541,500
217
5
Andrea Dato
Italy
521,000
208
6
Victor Yugay
Uzbekistan
464,000
186
7
Murat Ozyurt
Turkey
426,000
170
8
Simeon Spasov
Bulgaria
403,000
161
9
Boris Smuskevicius
Lithuania
402,000
161
10
Damir Zhugralin
Kazakhstan
395,000
158
Dato bagging a top stack is particularly noteworthy as he recently achieved his career-best score here in Cyprus with a runner up finish in the 2023 EPT Cyprus Main Event for $652,000 this past October. Clearly adept at navigating large tournament fields, Dato will be a force to be reckoned with as he takes his stack worth 208 big blinds into Day 2.
Other notables to advance to Day 2 include Aleksandr Kirichenko (186,000), Dinesh Alt (180,500), Simone Andrian (167,500), Rosalie Petit (155,000) and Fabio Peluso (112,000). Although the Merit Poker Cup is a new tournament introduced during this festival, Andrian did win the equivalent-buy in $2,200 Warm Up at the 2024 Merit Poker Western Series this past January for $165,000. Time will tell if another victory is in the cards for the Italian pro and bracelet winner in this event.
Players who entered Day 1a but were not fortunate enough to advance to Day 2 include Felipe Ketzer and Andrey Pateychuk.
Stay tuned for more coverage as PokerNews brings you all the action from the remainder of the festival along the shores of the Mediterranean in North Cyprus.