Ali Reza Fatehi Wins Merit Poker Top Gun High Roller ($108,516)
The Merit Poker Top Gun series held at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino on the northern coast of Cyprus wrapped up with an exciting High Roller and Main Event.
Event #23: $5,000 No-limit High Roller 8-max with a $125,000 guarantee drew 84 entries, which included 20 reentries. The $363,216 prize pool nearly tripled the posted guarantee, and Ali Reza Fatehi walked away with the lion’s share of the purse, winning the event for $108,516.
Fatehi, who played in the recently released televised PokerStars Championship Cash Challenge, busted onto the tournament poker scene with a third-place finish in the €100,000 Super High Roller in Monte-Carlo back in April 2016.
He followed up that performance with two final tables in back-to-back €25,500 EPT Prague High Roller events in December 2016 that resulted in fourth- and second-place finishes for over $133,000.
PokerNews’ Sarah Herring caught up with Fatehi before those big scores for a little interview, which you can watch here. The win in the Merit Poker High Roller is Fatehi’s first big score since that big year.
$5,000 High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Ali Reza Fatehi | $108,516 |
| 2nd | Dmitry Gromov | $75,775 |
| 3rd | Alf Martinsson | $48,500 |
| 4th | Rinat Bogdanov | $35,825 |
| 5th | Georgios Zisimopoulos | $26,750 |
| 6th | Seref Dursun Anar | $21,300 |
| 7th | Uri Reichenstein | $17,650 |
| 8th | Unknown | $14,000 |
| 9th | Aleksandr Chernikov | $10,400 |
| 10th | Walid Bou Habib | $4,500 |
The $2,200 buy-in Main Event with a $350,000 guarantee attracted 228 entries and 143 reentries, bringing the total to 371. The $682,640 prize pool was nearly double the guarantee and the top 44 got paid.
While the top prize was slated at $144,630, a four-way deal that changed the payouts. Georgios Kapalas was the official winner of the event, taking home $79,365. The second- through fourth-place finishers actually won more money though, as part of the deal that was made before the tournament played out.
The next three all made over $90,000. Here’s a look at the top ten finishers in the Main Event:
Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Georgios Kapalas | $79,365 |
| 2nd | Georgios Manousos Sotiropoulos | $91,180 |
| 3rd | Unknown | $99,020 |
| 4th | Mario Mosboeck | $90,255 |
| 5th | Kaveh Pegahi | $35,840 |
| 6th | Ivan Zhechev | $28,670 |
| 7th | Stavros Kalfas | $23,890 |
| 8th | Mohammadmahdi Hasani | $19,115 |
| 9th | Alexandras Rusinovas | $14,335 |
| 10th | Malikeh Sadat Razavi Jamali | $10,445 |
Photos courtesy of Merit Poker
