$5,300 High Roller Day 2 | 2023 Merit Poker Western Series

$5,300 High Roller

Day 2 Completed

01-27-2023 07:18 UTC+3

Tantillo Leads Final 17 After Day 2 of High Roller

Jeff McMillan

Level 23 : Blinds 20,000/40,000, 40,000 ante

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

Position	Player	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Fausto Tantillo	2,260,000	57
2	Osman Ilhamur	2,010,000	50
3	Toni Kaukua	1,490,000	37
4	Jenya Gavrilovich	1,450,000	36
5	Roman Kolotiuk	1,310,000	33
6	Andreas Christoforou	1,100,000	28
7	Yauhen Kontush	1,035,000	26
8	Iulian-Remus Blebea	805,000	20
9	Dawid Kuliberda	685,000	17
10	Giorgii Shkulukhiia	515,000	13

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.

Tags: Fausto Tantillo Jenya Gavrilovich Osman Ilhamur Ran Ilani Roman Kolotiuk Toni Kaukua

01-27-2023 06:33 UTC+3

End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Jeff McMillan

Level 23 : Blinds 20,000/40,000, 40,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Fausto Tantillo	2,260,000	1,090,000
Osman Ihlamur	2,010,000	2,010,000
Toni Kaukua	1,490,000	640,000
Jenya Gavrilovich	1,450,000	-150,000
Roman Kolotiuk	1,310,000	-365,000
Andreas Christoforou	1,100,000
Yauhen Kontush	1,035,000	-215,000
Iulian-Remus Blebea	805,000	-110,000
Dawid Kuliberda	685,000	-365,000
Giorgiy Skhulukhiya	515,000	515,000
Viktor Ustimov	468,000	378,000
[Removed:446]	405,000	25,000
Joseph Mouwad	350,000	-130,000
Mihai Niste	350,000	350,000
Koray Korkmaz	235,000	-440,000
Recep Aydemir	150,000	-150,000
Jack Sinclair	140,000	-335,000

01-27-2023 06:28 UTC+3

End of Play

Jeff McMillan

Level 23 : Blinds 20,000/40,000, 40,000 ante

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

01-27-2023 06:27 UTC+3

Ran Ilani Bubbles High Roller

Jeff McMillan

Level 23 : Blinds 20,000/40,000, 40,000 ante

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.

Player	Chips	Progress
Andreas Christoforou	1,100,000	980,000
Ran Ilani	Busted

Tags: Andreas Christoforou Ran Ilani

01-27-2023 06:19 UTC+3

Gavrilovich Makes Big Call With Tournament Life on Line, Then Gets Penalty

Jeff McMillan

Level 23 : Blinds 20,000/40,000, 40,000 ante

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. .