Nazar Buhaiov Bags €75K & Second Merit Poker Title in Montenegro
After three days of poker inside the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva, the €2,750 High Roller at the 2026 Merit Poker Montenegro Championship has crowned its champion. Ukraine’s Nazar Buhaiov came out on top of a field of 128 entries to secure the title and the €75,000 first-place prize.
Buhaiov closed out the win after a brief heads-up that lasted just five hands, defeating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan to lock up his second Merit Poker title. Buhaiov will have fond memories of Montenegro, as the last time Merit Poker staged a festival here, back in 2022, Buhaiov finished fifth in the High Roller and also claimed his maiden Merit Poker win during that same series by taking down the €777 Opening Event.
€2,750 High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nazar Buhaiov | Ukraine | €75,000 |
| 2 | Andrey Golubev | Kazakhstan | €52,000 |
| 3 | Seref Anar | Turkey | €37,000 |
| 4 | Davor Pistalo | Croatia | €27,600 |
| 5 | Nemanja Tatar | Montenegro | €21,000 |
| 6 | Giorgiy Skhulukhiya | Georgia | €16,300 |
| 7 | Bojan Berberovic | Serbia | €12,400 |
| 8 | Nikolai Ivanov | Russia | €9,400 |
Winner's Reaction
Fresh off the victory, Buhaiov said the win meant a lot to him, even if it wasn’t the biggest score of his career. “Any victory is very important for me,” Buhaiov said. “I don’t have many trophies, so every win is a very pleasant moment...Montenegro has been good to me.”
Looking back on the tournament itself, Buhaiov noted that it was far from straightforward. After firing two bullets, he found himself down to around ten big blinds on Day 2 before turning things around. “I made a couple of double ups, then applied pressure around the bubble,” he said. “After that, everything went well, and heads-up was quite fast. I’m very happy with how it finished.”
Buhaiov's Brilliance
When play resumed for Day 3, all 17 returning players were already in the money, and the shorter stacks wasted little time trying to spin things up and make a run at the final table. The two remaining Lebanese players, Chady Ojeil and Charbel Salloum, were the first to exit, both falling during the second level of the day.
Not long after, it was final table bubble time, and this burst quickly with a double elimination, as Illia Petrytsia and Serhat Cetiner were both knocked out on the same hand. Petrytsia lost a 60/40 against Seref Anar, while on the other table Giorgiy Skhulukhiya’s pocket sixes held against Cetiner’s pocket fours. With the payout split, the final table was set, with Golubev out in front and Buhaiov sitting third in chips.
Not long after the final table got underway, Golubev extended his chip lead by sending Nikolai Ivanov to the rail with two pair. Less than an orbit later, Buhaiov and Bojan Berberovic got the chips in for a flip worth more than 45 big blinds, with both stacks nearly identical. Buhaiov came out on top, and Berberovic, fresh off a final table in the Merit Poker Cup, was eliminated in seventh place.
After Skhulukhiya was eliminated in sixth by Anar, Buhaiov began opening and three-betting far more frequently. He closed the gap on Golubev significantly by getting paid with trips against Anar, then he sent Nemanja Tatar to the rail in fifth. Tatar jammed blind on blind with a weak ace and ran straight into Buhaiov’s pocket nines, a pot that saw Buhaiov take over the chip lead for the first time on the final day.
The talkative Davor Pistalo bowed out in fourth after his aces were cracked by Anar’s flopped set, leaving the final three separated by just a few big blinds. On the very first hand after the break, Buhaiov squeezed from the big blind after Golubev opened the button and Anar called. Anar then overbet jammed an ace-high flop, and Buhaiov called with top pair. Buhaiov held against Anar’s second pair, sending the tournament into heads-up.
Buhaiov began heads-up with a little over a 2:1 chip lead and, after dropping a few small pots, wrapped things up on the fifth hand. Holding queen-ten, Buhaiov turned the nuts, then watched Golubev overbet jam into him. Buhaiov made the call, faded the chop on the river, and that was enough to send Golubev out in second while Buhaiov was crowned champion and collected €75,000.
