Earlier this week at the 2025 Mediterranean Poker Party, Konstantin Voronin found himself at the top of the leaderboard after Day 1 of the $2,200 Grand Final. Today, after Day 1 of the $10,400 Onyx High Roller at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa concluded, he found himself in familiar waters as he topped the charts once again, standing atop the 35 survivors of the 149 entries as the $1,000,000 guarantee was easily surpassed.
Voronin won a big pot while the late registration was still open, knocking out Kirill Solovev, ending up with 3,000,000 chips. He even eclipsed the five-million mark for a bit before ending the day with a respectable 4,265,000, over ten times the starting stack and worth 107 big blinds at the start of Day 2. Voronin is closely followed by Maksim Shornikau, whose stack of 4,230,000 is less than a big blind smaller than Voronin's.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Konstantin Voronin | Russian Federation | 4,625,000 | 116 |
| 2 | Maksim Shornikau | Belarus | 4,230,000 | 106 |
| 3 | Vedat Yilmaz | Turkey | 3,830,000 | 96 |
| 4 | Aren Bezhanyan | Armenia | 3,780,000 | 95 |
| 5 | Kirill Shcherbakov | Russian Federation | 3,000,000 | 75 |
| 6 | Abdullah Alajmi | Kuwait | 2,930,000 | 73 |
| 7 | Nikita Kalinin | Russian Federation | 2,475,000 | 62 |
| 8 | Dzmitry Budai | Belarus | 2,385,000 | 60 |
| 9 | Roman Stoika | Russian Federation | 2,270,000 | 57 |
| 10 | Alessio Isaia | Italy | 2,100,000 | 53 |
Aren Bezhanyan jumped straight into the high roller after busting the Main Event in 30th place, and made good strides in making another deep run as he bagged 3,780,000 at the end of Day 1. Belarusian high-stakes regular Mikalai Vaskaboinikau made it through to Day 2 with 1,920,000, while Jessica Teusl, the only lady in the field, survived the day with 520,000.
With about a quarter of the field making the cut, plenty of big names did not make it through. Two-time bracelet winner Keith Lehr lost a flip in the final few hands of Day 1 and exited. Niall Farrell busted soon after the late registration had closed, while Tom-Aksel Bedell and Ankit Ahuja fired one bullet and decided not to reenter. Grand Final champion Ivan Bryksin went for his second title of the week, but was eliminated shortly after entering the field.
Those who did make it through to Day 2 will come back tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time. The exact prize pool and payouts have not been confirmed yet, but around $1,400,000 has been collected, and it has been confirmed that 23 spots will be paid. The blinds will recommence in Level 13: 20,000/40,000 (40,000), and as tomorrow is the last day of the festival, enough 40-minute levels will be played for a winner to be crowned.
Tune back in to PokerNews tomorrow as you do not want to miss the thrilling conclusion of the MPP $10,400 Onyx High Roller.
