There were already around 150,000 chips in the pot on a 5♥2♦8♦Q♠J♣ board when Konstantin Voronin fired out 75,000. Paul Grummitt was the player facing the bet and didn't hesitate to call.
Voronin then showed J♦3♦ for second pair, but Grummitt had the winner as he turned two pair holding Q♥2♥.
After that pot, Grummitt's stack grew to around 1,000,000!
Ryhor Karapanau has just catapulted himself into a stack of almost 500 big blinds!
Karapanau recalled the hand and said there was an open to 6,000 and then a three-bet to 18,000. He then four-bet the small blind to 54,000 before Mustafa Yildiz five-bet shoved around 725,000! Karapanau called off his stack of slightly less.
Ryhor Karapanau: K♥K♦
Mustafa Yildiz: A♦Q♥
The two were contesting a pot with almost 1,500,000 and Karapanau had the upper hand with his Cowboys, but there were still five cards to come.
Luckily for Karapanau, the runout of 7♦8♠4♣4♥3♣ kept his kings in the lead, and Yildiz' early double-up with a straight flush was eradicated, leaving him with just 10,000 in his stack.
On the other hand, Karapanau now has 1,450,000 to play with, just the casual 483-big-blind stack.
Rami Shouman had open-raised when Aleksandr Kirichenko made it 21,000 to go on the button. It folded back to Shouman, who tossed in a call.
The 7♠6♥8♥ flop and 5♠ turn then checked through to the 5♣ river. Shouman flicked in 11,000 chips, which Kirichenko accidentally min-raised to 22,000, wanting to call instead.
Shouman made full use of the situation and three-bet to 82,000. Kirichenko spent some time banks before letting go of his cards, visibly displeased by the situation.
Mustafa Ercan just made an insane bluff against Anthony Spinella, who was on the brink of making the right call but folded at the last second.
The pot already had around 90,000 in it on a board of 9♦A♠10♣ when Spinella fired out 18,000 from the small blind and Ercan called from middle position. Dori Yacoub was on the button and bumped it up to 48,000, which both Spinella and Ercan called.
A 2♦ dropped on the river and again the action checked to Yacoub, who bet 35,000. Again, both Spinella and Ercan called.
When the 3♥ came on the river, Spinella tapped the table again, then Ercan fired out 175,000. Yacoub was in a tough spot and with around 220,000 in his stack, he finally decided to fold.
When the action got to Spinella, he quickly tossed all of his time banks into the pot and started to piece together the hand. One, two, three time banks later and Spinella had the chips in his hand ready to call and seemed like he was about to drop them in, but changed his mind at the last moment and folded.
Ercan, with no hesitation, flipped over K♣Q♣ for a bluff.
"Oh my god. F**k me!" said Spinella when he saw the hand of Ercan. "You got heart man, I was so close,".
There has already been one straight flush today and there was just another!
On a board of 10♣7♠4♠5♠ there were around 100,000 chips in the pot when both the blinds checked to Natalia Karpova in the cutoff, who fired 50,000. Mustafa Yildiz called on the button, and both the blinds folded.
The river brought a 4♣ and Karpova fired again, this time for 85,000. Yildiz pondered for some time before he moved all of his chips into the middle for a raise of 215,000. Karpova didn't like the situation she was in and leaned back in her chair while she thought it over, but eventually she made the call.
Yildiz then revealed a straight flush with 8♠6♠, and Karpova showed 7♣7♥ for a rivered full house.
Josef Gulas in the hijack and Mehmet Demirkol were heads-up on a flop of 5♠6♦2♠. With a sizable pot of 54,000 in the middle, Gulas checked to Demirkol, who tossed in 9,000.
Gulas quickly called before both players checked the 2♥ turn. Gulas also checked the 4♦ river, after which Demirkol made a hefty bet of 61,000. Gulas confirmed the amount before calling off.
Demirkol tabled A♥3♥ for the straight, seeing Gulas muck his cards after double-checking with the dealer. Samuel Ju was also spotted at this table, having recently bought in.
Jason Barton made a raise to 4,000 in the cutoff, being three-bet to 16,000 by Yuhang Chen on the button. The blinds got out of the way before Barton called to the 2♥Q♦6♦ flop.
Barton checked, Chen continued for 11,000, and Barton raised to 33,000. Chen put in the required chips for a call, and did so as well when Barton put in 55,000 on the 10♦ turn.
The 8♠ river slowed Barton down, as he checked over to Chen. Chen assembled a massive bet of 155,000, most of his stack. Barton did not need long before surrendering his cards and forfeiting the pot to his neighbor.
Another day at the 2025 Mediterranean Poker Party means another starting flight of the $5,300 Main Event. Day 1c will begin at noon local time at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, being the last regularly structured starting flight of the event. However, two more turbo flights are in store for those unfortunate enough not to make it through Day 1c, with Day 1d starting up at 8 p.m. local time today, and the last-minute Day 1e being scheduled at noon tomorrow, a few hours before Day 2 will commence.
The collected prize money has reached just over half the $5,000,000 guarantee after Day 1a and Day 1b, with 582 entries registered, of which 143 have already punched their ticket to Day 2. Leading the pack is Day 1a chipleader Aren Bezhanyan, being the only person to eclipse 4,000,000 in the counts. The biggest stack on Day 1b, meanwhile, belonged to Dmitry Kataev, although with 3,400,000, he gathered significantly fewer chips than Bezhanyan, who ended Day 1a with 4,250,000.
Day 1a and Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Aren Bezhanyan
Armenia
4,245,000
142
2
Dmitry Kataev
Russian Federation
3,400,000
113
3
Viktor Mukhin
Russian Federation
3,060,000
102
4
Iurii Okolovich
Russian Federation
2,945,000
98
5
Aleksandr Blokhin
Russian Federation
2,825,000
94
6
Anatoly Zlotnikov
Russian Federation
2,785,000
93
7
Artsiom Lasouski
Belarus
2,780,000
93
8
Ivan Govorov
Russian Federation
2,595,000
87
9
Nikolai Ivanov
Russian Federation
2,570,000
85
10
Roman Timergazin
Russian Federation
2,360,000
79
Aren Bezhanyan
All players who register for Day 1c will receive the starting stack of 300,000 and will have 12 levels of play to try and dethrone Bezhanyan in the counts. The first level will have blinds of 1,000/1,500 (1,500), and there will be ten 40-minute levels of late registration, during which players can make a single reentry.
The latest anyone can join the field is the first hand of Level 11, at which point the starting stack will be worth 15 big blinds, as the levels will increase to 50 minutes. The day will wrap up one level later, with blinds at 10,000/25,000 (25,000). Meanwhile, the turbo flights Day 1d and Day 1e will have 20-minute levels throughout the entire day.
Remaining Main Event Schedule
Day
Date
Time
Blind Levels
Day 1c
May 10
12:00 p.m.
40 minutes (10 levels) + 50 minutes (2 levels)
Day 1d
May 10
9:00 p.m.
20 minutes
Day 1e
May 11
12:00 p.m.
20 minutes
Day 2
May 11
6:00 p.m.
50 minutes
Day 3
May 12
12:00 p.m.
60 minutes
Final Day
May 13
12:00 p.m.
60 minutes
PokerNews will be on the floor to report the entirety of Day 1c, while Day 1d and Day 1e chip counts will be posted before the live coverage will recommence at the start of Day 2. Keep your eyes peeled on this page for exciting poker action as Day 1c is expected to be the biggest starting flight yet.
