2023 Merit Poker Western Series

Day 2 of the Merit Poker Western Series $5,300 Main Event was one that went into the wee hours of the morning and ended at 5:30 a.m. local time with just 17 players left vying for the $170,000 grand prize out of the $676,200 prizepool.

Finishing the wild night on top of the chip counts was Italian player Fausto Tantillo who bagged up 2,260,000. He made his move late in the night as he did not emerge as chip leader until the final couple of levels.

Not far behind him in second was Osman Ilhamur of Turkey who was the only player to finish up with over 2 million. He was one of the players who waited until today to late-reg and turned it into a wise decision with a cash and a mound of chips.

Merit Poker Western Series $5,300 Main Event Top 10 Chip Counts

Toni Kaukua finished with a stack good for third with 1,490,000 and right on his heels was Jenya Gavrilovich with only 40,000 less. The Belarusian player caused some mid-morning fireworks on the bubble as he called off correctly for his tournament life and then proceeded to get chippy with tablemates afterward to receive a penalty. Roman Kolotiuk (1,310,000) would round out the top five counts to end the night.

The day began with 95 players but would quickly swell with a flurry of late entries to grow the total field to 147, 41 of which were re-entries. The play would be steady for a few levels with not many eliminations happening, but then all of a sudden the dam would break and the players began to hit the door rapidly.

But with the money starting to appear on the horizon late in the night, play would again slow down to make for a long day. It would take about an hour for the money bubble to burst when Ran Ilani fell as the bubble boy.

The third and final day of this event will get underway at 6 p.m. Friday January 27th with 32 minutes remaining in Level 23.

The seat draw of three tables will be posted prior to play as it was decided to draw before play starts tomorrow and simply break a table with 16 remaining rather than hold a whole new two-table redraw on Day 3.

PokerNews will once again be on hand to deliver you all of the action until the conclusion.

Play has ended for the night with 32 minutes left in Level 23 and 17 players remaining. Recap will be posted shortly.

There was an all in and call on the bubble,

Ran Ilani:
Andreas Christoforou:

The stacks were close and the flop came , the turn was the to bring in the flush and finish Ilani as the river came the as he was the bubble boy of the high roller.

The board was completed to read . Jenya Gavrilovich bet 120,000 from the button. Andreas Christofour jammed all in for 710,000 which had Gavrilovich covered by about 100,000.

All eyes were on the table as Gavrilovich had the decision for his tournament life on the bubble. He stood up and stretched and stared down Christoforou. The countdown clock started and within ten seconds left Gavrolivich called.

Christoforou tabled the which Gavrilovich had beat with the .

"Yes!" said Gavrilovich. He then started to talk a bit of trash to Christoforou and the table in general, seemingly steamed about the clock call. He said "Next time" and made a gesture indicating a violent action of some type.

Tablemate Ran Ilani started to get into it with him as well, not appreciative of Gavrolivich's attitude and how he was rubbing it in a bit. The floor told everyone to stop and move on, but Gavrilovich continued to talk and hence recieved a two-hand penalty following his double up. .

The flop read . Andreas Christoforou bet 75,000 from early position. Jenya Gavrilovich jammed all in from the big blind for about 530,000.

Christoforou considered it for a while as everyone watched before he folded.

Action was on the turn as the board read . Jenya Gavrilovich bet 140,000 from the cutoff. Yauhen Kontush called in the big blind.

The river came the . Both players checked. Kontush tabled the to collect the pot.

The last several hands of hand-for-hand play have failed to deliver any pots more than a few blinds as play tightens on the bubble.