Felipe Ketzer opened to 5,500 from the button. Nichan Khorchidian was in the small blind and commented that Ketzer had won the last five hands in a row before folding. Shuang Luo was in the big blind and made the call.
The flop came J♣10♣5♣. Luo checked, Ketzer bet 3,500 and Luo check-raised to 10,500. Ketzer commented that his hand had problems with it before folding, showing the 2♣ as he did so. Luo then revealed that she had 8♠6♣ for no made hand and just a six-high flush draw.
The curtain has fallen on the first of four starting flights in the 2024 Merit Poker Gatsby Gala Series $3,300 Main Event here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. A total of 55 players managed to find a bag at the end of the night.
Leading the way is Russia's Mikhail Zavoloka, who ended the night with an impressive 667,000 chips, worth 267 big blinds going into Day 2. Zavoloka is most followed by Felipe Ketzer who bagged 570,500 while Aleksei Gortikov rounds out the top three with 553,000.
Zavoloka was under the radar for the first half of the day before storming to the top of the chip counts in the final three levels. Zavoloka is no stranger to success in Merit Poker events, with two victories under his belt. Just over a month ago at EPT Cyprus he won the $550 No-Limit Hold'em Eureka Cup for $116,645, while he achieved his best Cyprus score from a victory in the $1,200 Mystery Bounty event as last year's EPT Cyprus from which he took home $143,550.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Stacks
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Mikhail Zavoloka
Russian Federation
667,000
267
2
Felipe Ketzer
Brazil
570,500
228
3
Aleksei Gortikov
Russian Federation
553,000
221
4
Daniyar Aubakirov
Kazakhstan
539,000
216
5
[Removed:544]
Austria
506,000
202
6
Dauren Zhaparov
Kazakhstan
500,000
200
7
Georgios Tsouloftas
Cyprus
459,500
184
8
Spyridon Apartoglou
Greece
452,500
181
9
Denis Kapustin
Russian Federation
445,500
178
10
Kerem Turuskan
Turkey
430,000
172
Ketzer joined the field midway through the day, shortly after finishing the $5,300 High Roller in sixth place for $26,000. Ketzer wasted no time accumulating chips once he sat down and was constantly pressuring his opponents en route to bagging the second-largest stack of the night. The Brazilian pro has come just shy of winning a Merit Poker Main Event twice, finishing third in the Merit Poker Western Series Main Event for $155,000 this past January before taking second place in the Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event for $249,200.
Felipe Ketzer
Others to make it through to the end of the night include Viktor Iarilov (410,000), Daniele Grasso (290,000), Candido Cappiello (221,000), Timur Margolin (186,000) and Aleksandr Kirichenko (96,500), Notables who played Day 1a but fell before the end of the night include Andrey Pateychuk, Darius Neagoe and Elie Farah.
Three starting flights remain for this event, Day 1b starts at noon local time tomorrow, November 26. There are two starting flights the next day on November 27: Day 1c begins at noon local time, while a turbo Day 1d flight begins at 7 p.m. The fields will combine at noon on November 28 for Day 2. Late registration and reentries will remain open until the end of Level 14, midway through Day 2, and a winner will be crowned on the final day, taking place on December 1.
Stay tuned for more coverage as PokerNews brings you all the action from the remainder of the festival along the shores of the Mediterranean in North Cyprus.
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