Nils Pudel opened the cutoff to 20,000 before Sergey Bortsov moved all in from the button for about 160,000. The action was then on Eli Saad in the small blind who asked for a count of both players stacks. After doing some accounting he went into the tank and eventually announced he was all in covering both players.
Pudel got out of the way and the cards hit their backs with Bortsov all in and at risk.
Sergey Bortsov: 5♣5♦
Eli Saad: A♥K♣
There was no real sweat as the dealer quickly burned and turned the 7♦7♣Q♠9♦6♥ board and Bortsov would earn the pure double by way of winning the flip against Saad.
Sultan Meirbekov was in the cutoff and had three-bet a previous open to 55,000. Alekseev Vladimir on the button moved all in for approximately 200,000 and Meirbekov made the call with a covering stack to put Vladimir at risk.
Alekseev Vladimir: 9♥9♣
Sultan Meirbekov: A♦J♥
Vladimir caught the better end of the 3♠5♥8♣ flop but Meirbekov took the lead with top pair on the J♣ turn. He remained ahead on the A♥ river to send Vladimir to the rail and take down a healthy pot.
Halil Serdar Tasyurek opened in middle position to 20,000 before it folded to the small blind who flat called. The action was then on Aleksandr Kirichenko in the big blind who sat in the tank for about a minute before announcing he was all in for about 210,000.
Tasyurek went over his options but eventually returned his cards to the dealer. The small blind also gave it some thought but eventually he also mucked.
Kirichenko scooped the pot without even seeing a flop early on in the day.
The third day of the 2023 Merit Poker Gangster Series $2,200 Warm Up tournament will begin at 12:00 p.m. local time, hosted at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. Andrei Daniliuk has emerged as the current chip leader with 2,175,000 chips which are worth a staggering 218 big blinds. Lithuania's Vladas Burneikis (1,871,000) and Lebanon's Hadi Khadra (1.866.000) are closely following him on the leaderboard.
On Day 2 of the tournament, there were a total of 175 players in the field. During the first four levels of the day, late registration was available, and approximately 60 more players joined. This brought the field to a total of 453 entrants after late registration had closed, generating a prize pool of $833,520. At the end of the day, 79 players managed to bag and tag their chips, qualifying for Day 3.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Andrei Daniliuk
Russian Federation
2,175,000
218
2
Vladas Burneikis
Lithuania
1,871,000
187
3
Hadi Khadra
Lebanon
1,866,000
187
4
Bakhos Joumaa
Lebanon
1,696,000
170
5
Razvan Sabau
Romania
1,366,000
137
6
Leonid Sidelkovskiy
Russian Federation
1,203,000
120
7
Feyzullah Karaarslan
Turkey
1,188,000
119
8
Damir Gabdullin
Russian Federation
1,074,000
107
9
Tugce Hursoz
Turkey
1,052,000
105
10
Sultan Meirbekov
Kazakhstan
923,000
92
Several notable players advanced to Day 3 of the tournament, including Benjamin Hamnett with 789,000 chips, Dmitry Yurasov, the chip leader for Day 1b with 741,000 chips, Arun Sood, the chip leader for Day 1c with 463,000 chips, Ankit Ahuja with 414,000 chips, and Guoliang Wei with 167,000 chips.
Today is Day 3 of the event, scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m. local time on November 25. The gameplay is expected to continue for 10 hour-long levels, with blinds starting at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante. The hour levels allow for plenty of chips to move hands and expect that the current leaderboard looks a lot different after a few hours of action packed levels. This will all culminate with one player taking home the trophy, the bragging rights and the massive $167,500 first-place prize.
For all the updates on this event until a winner is declared on November 26, make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews.