2023 Merit Poker Western Series

$2,200 Warmup
Day: 1bc
Event Info

2023 Merit Poker Western Series

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a5
Prize
$181,200
Event Info
Buy-in
$2,200
Prize Pool
$962,320
Entries
523
Level Info
Level
36
Blinds
400,000 / 800,000
Ante
800,000
Players Info - Day 1bc
Entries
201
Players Left
99

Bartlomiej Swieboda Rides the Roller Coaster to the Top of the Leaderboard on Day 1b

Level 8 : Blinds 1,000/2,500, 2,500 ante
Bartlomiej Swieboda
Bartlomiej Swieboda

The Merit Poker Western Series evokes imagery from the wild, wild west, and no one had a wilder day than Bartlomiej Swieboda on Day 1b of the $2,200 Warm Up.

Knocked down to just a few thousand chips, Swieboda got involved in a three-way all in with pocket sevens. He flopped a set, then hit quads on the river to triple up. But his excitement wouldn’t last long, as on the very next hand he again flopped a set, this time with pocket eights, but had Ben Hershkovich river a flush.

Swieboda’s roller-coaster day wasn’t over quite yet, however. Forced to reenter, he made the most of his second bullet, bagging up 463,000 and finishing Day 1b in fourth place on the chip leaderboard. He trails chip leader Ermanno Di Nicola (583,000), as well as Valentin Tsoy (545,000) and Arie Kliper (475,000).

Israeli pros Uri Reichenstein and Gabi Livshitz spent most of the day sharing a table and quite a bit of table banter as each enjoyed a fruitful Day 1b. Reichenstein ended up with 355,000, while Livshitz, who won this event in 2020, has 351,000. Other notables to survive the day include Koray Korkmaz (359,000), Maxime Chilaud (271,500), and Dawid Smolka (94,500).

Day 1b Top 10 chip counts

RankPlayerCountryChip CountBig Blinds
1Ermanno Di NicolaItaly583,000233
2Valentin TsoyUzbekistan545,000218
3Arie KliperIsrael475,000190
4Bartlomiej SwiebodaPoland463,000185
5Vasili FirsauBelarus385,000154
6Roman KolotiukRussia371,000148
7Eduard BarsegianRussia370,000148
8Georgios SkarparisCyprus363,000145
9Evgenii KatymaevRussia360,500144
10Koray KorkmazTurkey359,000144

A total of 201 entries gathered in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino poker room to chase a portion of the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool, and only 99 made it through to Day 2 tomorrow. They’ll join the 60 who survived Day 1a, as well as players from the turbo Day 1c flight later tonight. With late registration open for the first four levels of Day 2, the field will grow substantially larger before players reach the money.

Stay tuned for more action from the Merit Poker Western Series as PokerNews will be providing all the action up to a champion being crowned.

Tags: Bartlomiej SwiebodaDawid SmolkaGabi LivshitzKoray KorkmazMaxime ChilaudUri Reichenstein