Well-known poker voice and commentator Ali Nejad has made his way to North Cyprus for the Merit Western Poker Series where he will be in the booth for commentary of the live stream of the Main Event starting today.
Streaming is now live and can be viewed now through the live streaming link.
Action came in on the turn as the board showed 
. From the big blind, Kubanychbek Abakirov bet 18,000 and his opponent, who entered the day as one of the lrgest stacks but wished to remain anonymous, called from the small blind.
The river came the 
. The small blind checked. Bakirov thought for a while before betting 80,500. Hid opponent quickly raised all in and Abakirov snap-called.
The small blind tabled the 
for a flopped set but it was beaten by the 
wheel of Abakirov to knock the anon player down to about 300,000 from his early high perch and send the huge pot to the Kyrgyz player.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
635,000
413,000
|
413,000 |
Alex Goulder and Damir Rakhimov went heads-up to a flop of 
when Goulder bet 13,000 on the button. Rakhimov called in early position as the 
fell on the turn.
Both players checked to the 
river, when Rakhimov led out for 16,500. Goulder came back with a raise to 86,500, and Rakhimov called after some deliberation.
Goulder turned over 
for the nut flush to win the pot.
Paul Newey is at this table but has yet to take his seat on Day 2, the 93,000-chip stack he began the day with being blinded down.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
280,000
66,000
|
66,000 |
|
95,000
-152,000
|
-152,000 |
|
86,000
-7,000
|
-7,000 |
The poker room at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino will be packed today when Day 2 of the Merit Poker Western Series $3,300 Main Event begins at noon local time.
The first four starting flights saw 607 total entries, already far surpassing the $1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool. A large field of 303 players are still in contention at the start of Day 2, led by Tunisia's Chakib M'hiri.
M'hiri enjoyed a fruitful Day 1, at times surpassing the 700,000-chip milestone before finishing with 627,000. Right behind him is Aleksandar Jakovljevic with 607,000. There are still plenty of notables with large stacks remaining in the field, including Timur Margolin (429,000), Nuri Hadioglu (418,000), Gabi Livshitz (338,500), and Maxime Chilaud (314,500).
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chakib M'hiri | Tunisia | 627,000 | 251 |
| 2 | Aleksandar Jakovljevic | Romania | 607,000 | 243 |
| 3 | Anatoliy Shteyn | Russia | 515,000 | 206 |
| 4 | Salavat Shafigullin | Russia | 511,000 | 204 |
| 5 | Mohamed El-Sayed | Lebanon | 496,000 | 198 |
| 6 | Osman Atmaca | Turkey | 495,000 | 198 |
| 7 | Koray Korkmaz | Turkey | 475,000 | 190 |
| 8 | Eduard Bagrov | Armenia | 467,000 | 187 |
| 9 | Matan Krakow | Israel | 464,000 | 186 |
| 10 | Sergei Sokharev | Russia | 459,000 | 184 |
Day 2 will kick off in Level 10, with blinds of 1,000-2,500 and a 2,500 big blind ante. Late registration is open for the first four levels of the day, so the field should grow considerably by the time the prize pool is confirmed. Players are allowed unlimited reentries for the duration of the registration period.
PokerNews will be following all the action as the massive field gets whittled down towards the money bubble here on Day 2 in North Cyprus.
