435 Players Out Of 970 Entrants Qualified For Day 2
After four Day 1s, 435 players will gather at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino for Day 2 of the 2023 Merit Poker Retro Series $3,300 Main Event. In total, 920 entrants have been registered after Days 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d Turbo. But out of those 920 registrations, only half of them qualified for today's Day 2.
| Entrants | Remaining | |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1a | 418 | 179 |
| Day 1b | 286 | 123 |
| Day 1c | 225 | 108 |
| Day 1d Turbo | 41 | 25 |
| Total | 970 | 435 |
For now, Abdallah Jamal Eddine holds the title of the overall chipleader, as he finished Day 1b with 842,500 chips. Day 1c's chipleader, Kanan Taherkhani, follows closely behind (825,000). The biggest stack from Day 1a, Bahram Sakettaromsari (805,000), is the third and final stack with over 800,000 chips. To complete the picture, Carlos Aoun ended Day 1d Turbo as the chipleader as well, although his stack is considerably smaller than the others, with (only) 362,000 chips.
Day 1 Overall Top 10
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT | BLINDS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abdallah Jamal Eddine | Lebanon | 842,500 | 281 |
| 2 | Kanan Taherkhani | Turkey | 825,000 | 275 |
| 3 | Bahram Sakettaromsari | Iran | 805,000 | 268 |
| 4 | Ali Al-Kubasi | Iraq | 760,000 | 253 |
| 5 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 739,000 | 246 |
| 6 | Darko Svesko | Serbia | 731,000 | 244 |
| 7 | Michael Allen | United Kingdom | 696,500 | 232 |
| 8 | Jakub Koleckar | Czech Republic | 691,500 | 231 |
| 9 | Giora Tsimmerman | Israel | 679,500 | 227 |
| 10 | Vladislav Doroshkov | Russia | 672,000 | 224 |
But at the beginning of Day 2 at noon, it will still be challenging to have a complete view of the field, as late registrations remain open until the end of Level 14. So for the players eliminated, there will be five more 60-minute levels to enter or re-enter the tournament if needed. Day 2 will start on Level 10 (1,000/2,500 BB Ante 2,500, with a 15-minute break every two levels.
PokerNews will be following the action the entire way, providing live updates.