After twelve levels of play, Day 1b of the 2024 Mediterranean Poker Party $5,300 Main Event ended here at the beautiful Merit Royal Diamond Hotel in Northern Cyprus. 349 entrants were recorded on the second flight, doubling the total entries to 698 thus far. 84 players of those 349 reached the end of the day, in addition to the 88 from Day 1a.
It was a close battle for the chip lead as the night wrapped up, but in the end, it was Mikhail Zavoloka finishing at the top of the leaderboard with 3,585,000 in chips. He is followed by Mitchell Johnson (3,290,000), and Canada's WSOP bracelet winner Ami Barer (3,060,000) who is fresh off a final table finish at the €5,300 Main Event EPT Paris.
Also bagging healthy stacks were Hungarian’s Bernard Larabi (2,670,000), and Australia’s Cooper Feltham (2,455,000).
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikhail Zavoloka | Russian Federation | 3,585,000 | 120 |
| 2 | Mitchell Johnson | United Kingdom | 3,290,000 | 110 |
| 3 | Ami Barer | Canada | 3,060,000 | 102 |
| 4 | Kalle Parkkinen | Finland | 2,870,000 | 96 |
| 5 | Krzysztof Spisak | Poland | 2,730,000 | 91 |
| 6 | Bernard Larabi | Hungary | 2,670,000 | 89 |
| 7 | Kirill Shcherbakov | Russian Federation | 2,625,000 | 88 |
| 8 | Ramzi Karam | Lebanon | 2,480,000 | 83 |
| 9 | Cooper Feltham | Austrialia | 2,455,000 | 82 |
| 10 | Daniel Montagnolli | Austria | 2,125,000 | 71 |
WSOP bracelet winners Stephen Song (1,480,000), Renji Mao (1,075,000), and Fabio Peluso (1,300,000) also bagged chips, as well as WPT winner Alessio Isaia (400,000).
However unlike Song, some notable players who entered Day 1b will have to come back on Day 1c to qualify, like Jessica Teusl, Felipe Ketzer, Aylar Lie, and the winner of 2024 $1,100 Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty here in Northern Cyprus Aleksey Savenkov, and runner-up Kirill Burtin.
The $5,300 MPP Main Event picks up again tomorrow, May 09 with Day 1c starting at noon local time. 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.
