$2,200 Warm Up Day 1a | 2024 Merit Poker Gatsby Gala Series

Player	Chips	Progress
Candido Cappiello	694,500

Alisa Sibgatova	511,000
Aleksandr Kirichenko	490,000
Sinan Unlu	397,500
Simone Pascucci	390,500 10,000	10,000
Rayan Aljawhari	343,500
Daniele Grasso	317,000

Dumitru Pora	308,000
Nemo Koering	306,000
Nichan Khorchidian	303,000
Victor Fryda	300,000
Ran Ilani	293,000
Francisco Moreno	243,500 118,500	118,500
Maxime Chilaud	239,500
Stephane Gabarre	237,500
Francesco Sansone	228,500 228,500	228,500
Ludovic Periaux	202,000 58,000	58,000
Yaniv Shushan	196,000 44,000	44,000
Jeremy Saderne	195,000 95,000	95,000

Tommy Mokhtari	191,500 191,500	191,500
Zhao Cheng	168,500 168,500	168,500
Sinan Seremetli	165,500 5,500	5,500
Simone Andrian	143,500

Andrej Tekel	134,000 4,000	4,000
Denis Kapustin	130,500 130,500	130,500

Player

Chips

Progress

Candido Cappiello

694,500

511,000

490,000

397,500

390,500

10,000

Rayan Aljawhari

343,500

Daniele Grasso

317,000

Dumitru Pora

308,000

306,000

303,000

300,000

293,000

243,500

118,500

239,500

237,500

228,500

202,000

58,000

Yaniv Shushan

196,000

44,000

Jeremy Saderne

195,000

95,000

Tommy Mokhtari

191,500

Zhao Cheng

168,500

Sinan Seremetli

165,500

5,500

Simone Andrian

143,500

Andrej Tekel

134,000

4,000

Denis Kapustin

130,500

The first of four starting flights has concluded here at the 2024 Merit Poker Gatsby Gala $2,200 Warm Up hosted at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in North Cyprus. Day 1a attracted 75 entrants, with only 30 players finding a bag and advancing to Day 2 by the end of the night.

Candido Cappiello ended the night with the Day 1a chip lead, finishing with 694,500, a stack worth 232 big blinds going into Day 2. Cappiello is most closely folowed by Alisa Sibgatova (511,000) while Aleksandr Kirichenko (490,000) rounds out the top three. Cappiello was a massive chip leader midway through the day after eliminating Abdullah Alajmi, who was at the top of the counts for most of the early parts of the day. From that point on Cappiello never looked back, and was among the chip leaders for the rest of the night.

Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Candido Cappiello	Italy	694,500	232
2	Alisa Sibgatova	Russian Federation	511,000	170
3	Aleksandr Kirichenko	Russian Federation	490,000	163
4	Sinan Unlu	Turkey	397,500	133
5	Simone Pascucci	Italy	390,500	130
6	Rayan Aljawhari	Lebanon	343,500	115
7	Daniele Grasso	Italy	317,000	106
8	Dumitru Pora	Romania	308,000	103
9	Nemo Koering	France	306,000	102
10	Nichan Khorchidian	Lebanon	303,000	101

Day 1a Action

Despite a very slow structure, featuring hour-long levels and a starting stack worth over 150 big blinds, the action got off to a quick start and several massive pots took place in the opening levels. In one such pot, Kirichenko got his chips in as a huge underdog with top pair versus Hadi Khordbin's middle set. A miraculous runout saw Kirichenko make a running Broadway straight to earn a critical double up and from that point on the two players went in opposite trajectories. Khordbin was left short and eliminated before the end of the night while Kirichenko kept climbing, ultimately bagging the third-largest stack.

Sibgatova faced some early adversity after losing her first bullet to Lachezar Petkov, who had rivered a flush to pull ahead of Sibgatova's two pair. Sibgatova wasted little time reentering and fared much better on her second bullet. On Level 7 she knocked out Erdal Gulseven with pocket kings en route to finishing the day with the second-largest stack.

More notables to make it through Day 1a with chips include Nichan Khorchidian (303,000), Jeremy Saderne (195,000) and Simone Andrian (143,500), Others who joined the Day 1a field but were unable to find a bag include Lachezar Petkov and Alessio Isaia.

Day 1b begins tomorrow at noon local time, featuring the same structure as Day 1a. As always, Stay tuned for more coverage as PokerNews brings you all the action from the remainder of the festival.

Tags: Abdullah Alajmi Aleksandr Kirichenko Alessio Isaia Alisa Sibgatova Candido Cappiello Daniele Grasso Dumitru Pora Erdal Gulseven Hadi Khordbin's Jeremy Saderne Lachezar Petkov Nemo Koering Nichan Khorchidian Rayan Aljawhari Simone Andrian Simone Pascucci Sinan Unlu