"John Doey" Bags Biggest Stack in Day 1c as Several Seven-Figure Winners Progress

Day 1c of the $2,200 Global Poker Championship is in the bag at the 2026 Mediterranean Poker Party. The flight attracted a total of 302 entries to the Merit Crystal Cove Casino, of which 45 players made it through to Day 2. They are now in the money and will join the rest of the field to play for a guaranteed $2,000,000 prize pool.

A player calling himself "John Doeys" topped the count with 2,275,000. Doeys doubled with aces late in the night and then won a flip to finish with his monster stack. He was just shy of claiming the overall chip lead. That privilege still belongs to Day 1a chip leader Sergei Petrushevskii, who has 2,420,000.

No other Day 1c player made it beyond the 2,000,000 mark. Second place Ersin Sancak was just shy of that tally, bagging 1,945,000, while third place Cristian David finished with 1,265,000 to his name.

Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	John Doeys	Cyprus	2,275,000	91
2	Ersin Sancak	Austria	1,945,000	78
3	Cristian David	Romania	1,265,000	51
4	Arman Bezhanian	Russian Federation	1,250,000	50
5	Xiaosheng Zheng	China	1,190,000	48
6	Anatoly Korochenskiy	Russian Federation	1,185,000	47
7	Hakan Orduzu	Turkey	1,095,000	44
8	Yilu Yuan	China	1,090,000	44
9	Artem Kotkovskyi	Ukraine	1,070,000	43
10	Rustam Amirbekov	Russian Federation	980,000	39

Xiaosheng Zheng, who won the 2025 Merit Poker Dolce Vita Series, bagged a top five stack with 1,190,000. Other notable players to make it through included 2026 NOIR Poker Series Main Event winner Selahaddin Bedir (925,000), who has over $7 million in winnings to his name; 2025 Onyx SHRS Main Event and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Fahredin Mustafov (665,000); and WSOP bracelet winner Espen Sandvik (590,000).

An extra flight has been added to the $2,200 Global Poker Championship. Day 1e will kick off at 10 a.m. local time with a turbo structure, while Day 2 now has a later starting time of 4 p.m. Day 2 resumes in the money with 50-minute blind levels, and is expected to play down to the final table, although that could change given the shakeup to the schedule.