Levi, Rudolph, Weissman, Pateychuk, Loeser, and Kempe All Through To Day 2; Jazzar Takes Day 1a Chip Lead;
Day 1a of the $5,300 Main Event here at the Merit Poker Classic has come to an end with 93 entries. Out of those 93 entries, 43 players have made it through to Day 2, Thursday, May 9. Claiming the Day 1a chip lead is Maroun Jazzar with 574,200 in chips.
Trailing Jazzar in the chip counts are Shahar Levi (532,600), Volodymyr Yastreb (455,000) and Christian Rudolph (432,500). Other notable players to have bagged and tagged an above average stack for Day 2 include Joey Weissman (400,800), Pavel Kovalenko (339,900), Bart Lybaert (310,300), Andrey Pateychuk (259,600), Daria Feshchenko (259,100), Albert Daher (257,100), and Boris Kolev with 192,000.
Vicent Bosca, Ioannis Angelou-Konstas, Manig Loeser, Miguel Iglesias, Rainer Kempe, and Mario Mosböck have also made it through this quiet starting day. Unfortunately, not everyone managed to win their hands today as Ali Reza Fatehi, Javier Fernandez, Aleksandr Gofman, and Markus Pohl all failed to win their final all-ins.
Another starting flight will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, May 7 at noon local time with the exact same structure of eight levels of 60 minutes each with a 10-minute break after every two levels. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action as more familiar faces will jump into the Main Event here in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.
. Rainer Kempe called in the small blind and so did the player in the big blind.
, Kempe and the big blind checked, the initial raiser bet 6,500 and only Weissman and the big blind called.
to give Weissman the nut-flush. The player in the big blind checked again. The initial raiser shoved and Weissman called. The player in the big blind also shoved and Weissman called again. The big blind player had 
for the lower flush and was drawing dead for the straight flush as Weismann had the 
for Lybaert to flop a pair of queens and improve to two pair on the river to double up.
and Vanush Mnatsakyan had bet 12,000 from the small blind. The player in the big blind called and Wael Chaaban responded with a shove for 51,700. Mnatsakyan tanked for a while and then the clock was called on him. The floor came over, looked at the clock and then Mnatsakyan also shoved. The player in the big blind asked for a count, the dealer confirmed Mnatsakyan had 99,700 behind. The dealer also counted out Chaaban's stack and then the big blind folded to let them battle it out.
on the turn and the 
