Who Will Make the Final Day as 66 Players Return For the Merit Poker Classic Main Event
The penultimate day of the Merit Poker Classic $5,300 Main Event kicks off at noon local time with 66 players returning to their seats out of 649 entries in total. They will be challenging each other on the felt to see who will make it to the final day. Everyone is guaranteed at least $9,270 but will all be trying to get their hands on a bigger piece of the $2,990,267 prize pool.
Pavel Kovalenko will start the day at the top of the chip counts with 3,162,000 in chips. He’s seated at the same table as Elvin Sarkarov who also sports a stack of over 100 big blinds. The other players at the table are Nariman Yaghmai, Aleksei Istomin, Dori Yacoub, Shahar Levi, Milad Oghabian, and Tarek Yassine. According to The Hendon Mob this table is worth almost $3 million in cashes.
Another Pavel follows Kovalenko in the chip counts, Pavel Plesuv bagged 3,055,00 at the end of Day 3 and he starts the day on Table #4 which features two anonymous players, “John Two” and “John Three”. But the more familiar names will be the partypoker pro Ludovic Geilich and Uri Reichenstein. Kacper Pyzara was leading the chip counts together with Kovalenko during the latter part of Day 3 but ended up third in the leader board. The more recognizable names on his table include Dragos Trofimov, Lachezar Petkov, and Ben Farrell.
But with 66 players left in the field, every table features some poker world stars like another partypoker pro Kristen Bicknell, Andrey Pateychuk, Manig Loeser, Kenny Hallaert, Joey Weissman, Anton Morgenstern, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Vlad Darie, Florian Duta, and Stoyan Obreshkov for example.
Six levels of 75 minutes each are scheduled for today with a 15-minute break after every two levels. When players return, they will play Level 20 which has a small blind of 12,000, big blind of 25,000, and a big blind ante of 25,000.
Day 4 Structure
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | BB Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 75 | 12,000 | 25,000 | 25,000 |
| 21 | 75 | 15,000 | 30,000 | 30,000 |
| Break | 15 | |||
| 22 | 75 | 20,000 | 40,000 | 40,000 |
| 23 | 75 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Break | 15 | |||
| 24 | 75 | 30,000 | 60,000 | 60,000 |
| 25 | 75 | 40,000 | 80,000 | 80,000 |
Make sure to return at noon to follow all the action from the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand with you to see who will make it to the final day.
for Loeser to flop a pair of aces to score the huge double up.
for Levi to stay ahead but for Plesuv to pick up the flush draw and gutshot to the straight.
, Levi just needed to avoid another spade or deuce to double up to scoop a huge double and he did so as the 
completed the board on the river.
for Kovalenko to hit a runner-runner flush in the end, even though he was already ahead, to eliminate Pateychuk.
for Farrell to flop the nut flush.
through Basil Yaiche who also held 
for Bicknell to flop top two pair to eliminate Sarkarov.
on the turn. Braude now put Duta all-in and Duta called for the 280,000 he had behind.
for Duta to improve to two pair to double up.
