Action is starting to ramp up in beautiful North Cyprus as Day 1b of the $2,200 Event #7 MPP Warm-Up, guaranteed for a huge$2,000,000 is about to get underway at the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party held at the luxurious Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Casino.
Big names have descended on to the island with the likes of Chino Rheem, Bruno Fitoussi, Ferenc Deak, and Steve O'Dwyer playing Day 1a, but only O'Dwyer has advanced to Day 2 bagging for 113,000. It is remained to be seen if Epsen Jorstad, Paul Newey, or Dzmitry Urbanovich will be jumping into Day 1b, who has been spotted enjoying the facilities at the resort.
Russia's Yuriy Zakharov advanced into Day 2 as the chip leader with a colossal 871,000 chips. Khodr Manana from Lebanon is second with 727,000 and Turkey's Selahaddin Bedir, who finished third in the MPP Open earlier this week, is third in the MPP Warm-Up bagging for 588,000.
Another finalist from the MPP Open, runner-up Alessio Isaia also progressed with 445,000. The MPP Open champion Vadzim Godzdanker busted late on Day 1a and is expected to make another appearance today.
Cards will be in the air at noon, local time with late registration closing at 9.45 p.m. Each player will receive a starting stack of 50,000 and blinds will increase after every 40-minutes. Players will have the option of one reentry if they bust before late registration closes, failing that there are three more Day 1's they can enter to allow them to advance to Day 2.
There will be a 15-minute break after every three levels, apart from the 60-minute dinner break at approximately 7 p.m. local time. From Day 2, which is on Sunday, August 28th, a 30-second shot clock will be introduced with players receiving eight time bank cards.
Play will continue until the field is whittled down to 15% of the total entrants that day, with play expected to conclude in the early hours of tomorrow morning. If they make the 15% they are guaranteed a minimum cash.
As always PokerNews will provide all of the latest updates at the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Casino.
, Amjad Nader bet 27,500 from the button, which puzzled Timur Margolin in the hijack. 
completed the board to give Nader nines full of jacks. A huge double up for Nader, while Margolin has a massive rebuilding job to do.
