Saddle Up for Day 1b of the Merit Poker Western Series $2,200 Warm Up at Noon
The wild west meets a glittering seaside paradise when Day 1b of the Merit Poker Western Series $2,200 Warm Up begins at noon local time.
This event kicks off a 12-day festival that will see players from around the world descend on the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino in North Cyprus for plenty of duels and shootouts until they are the last one standing. Day 1a was held yesterday and saw 60 players from a starting field of 131 survive to make Day 2. Paul Browne ended the day as the chip leader with 635,500. Other players that have already booked their spot into Day 2 include Fahredin Mustafov (233,000), Nikolay Fal (201,500), Michael Lech (141,500), and Joseph Hebert (69,000).
Day 1a Top 10 chip counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Browne | United Kingdom | 635,500 | 254 |
| 2 | Ryan Mandara | United Kingdom | 621,000 | 248 |
| 3 | Aibek Kozhomzharov | Kyrgyzstan | 535,000 | 214 |
| 4 | Roelof Pepping | Netherlands | 461,000 | 184 |
| 5 | La Sengphet | United States | 442,000 | 177 |
| 6 | Simeon Spasov | Bulgaria | 417,000 | 167 |
| 7 | Aleksei Istomin | Russia | 402,500 | 161 |
| 8 | Kemalettin Dogantekin | Turkey | 398,000 | 159 |
| 9 | Julien Lorie | France | 393,000 | 157 |
| 10 | Sorin-Irinel Lica | Romania | 333,000 | 133 |
Players begin the tournament with 100,000 chips. Day 1 consists of eight 60-minute levels, with a 15-minute break after every two levels. The surviving players return for Day 2 on January 18. Late registration is open until the end of Level 12 on Day 2, with players allowed unlimited reentries.
Russian high roller Artur Martirosian won this event last year, prevailing over a field of 550 players to earn $190,652. Manig Loeser (sixth), Ivan Deyra (15th), and Florian Duta (17th) also made deep runs a year ago.
One player will walk away with the top prize out of the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool, and PokerNews will be on hand providing live updates and chip counts throughout the tournament.
when Daniliuk check-called a bet of 3,000.
and Daniliuk led out for 10,000. The player in the cutoff called as the 
fell on the river. Daniliuk this time bet 17,000.
for a full house and his opponent tapped the table before mucking his cards.
flop.
fell on the turn. Firsau checked again and Baybars bet 15,000. Firsau came back with a raise to 41,000 and Baybars immediately moved all in for around 75,000.
for a flopped set as Firsau shot out of his seat.
and Firsau could only laugh as he was forced to hand over most of his stack.
, but Vazhnik had him dominated with 
and Vazhnik's king-kicker played to secure him a double up.
.
.
for two pair, while Vazhnik had 
.
