Abdullah Alajmi Leads the Final 81 in Day 2 of Merit Poker Western Series $2,200 Warm Up
Day 2 of the 2024 Merit Poker Western Series $2,200 Warm Up has come to a close here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in North Cyprus. Abdullah Alajmi has emerged as the overall Day 2 chip leader, bagging 1,550,000 chips to end the night, worth 155 big blinds going into tomorrow's Day 3. Alajmi is most closely followed by Simone Andrian (1,398,000) and Adrian State (1,160,000).
Alajmi began the day with an average stack but wasted no time accumulating chips with an aggressive style of play that earned him many pots without showdown. Alajmi only has one one recorded live tournament score for $6,500, a number he will surpass should he finish in 24th place or better in this event. In stark contrast, State and Andrian are no strangers to success in the large-field poker tournaments. Both players have nearly $1,000,000 in live career tournament earnings and Andrian holds a WSOP gold bracelet from an event in 2021 that earned him a career-best score of €158,616 ($179,653).
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abdullah Alajmi | Kuwait | 1,550,000 | 155 |
| 2 | Simone Andrian | Italy | 1,398,000 | 140 |
| 3 | Adrian State | Romania | 1,160,000 | 116 |
| 4 | Hadi Khordbin | Iran | 1,075,000 | 108 |
| 5 | Aleksandar Tot | Montengro | 1,058,000 | 106 |
| 6 | Xixiang Luo | China | 1,053,000 | 105 |
| 7 | Baurzhan Akimov | Kazakhstan | 1,045,000 | 105 |
| 8 | Peng Yang | China | 1,027,000 | 103 |
| 9 | Ghassan Bitar | Monaco | 1,003,000 | 100 |
| 10 | Guoliang Wei | China | 940,000 | 94 |
Day 2 began with 159 survivors from the first three starting flights. They were later joined by eight more players from the turbo Day 1d flight that began this morning. Late registration and unlimited reentries were available for the first four levels of play today, which resulted in approximately 110 more entrants. That brought the total field size to 446, generating a prize pool of $830,640. By the end of the night only 81 players managed to find a bag and advance to Day 3.
The slow structure of the tournament ensured that the players, many of whom began the day with well over 100 big blinds, had plenty of room to maneuver. Day 1a chip leader Peng Yang and Day 1b chip leader Ermanno Di Nicola not only began the day with the two biggest stacks, but also were seated at the same table for the first half of the day. The two chip leaders trended in opposite directions; Di Nicola continued to accumulate chips while Yang would ultimately bust and reenter just before the end of late registration. Despite the setback, Yang made good use of his second bullet and would finish the day with a top ten chip stack.
Also seated at this table throughout the day were Alajmi, who showed no fear in tangling with the big stacks, and Dzmitry Urbanovich, who quickly made his presence felt after turning a full house to score nearly a full triple up.
Alajmi began to surpass Di Nicola for the chip lead in the later levels of the day and nearly surpassed two million chips at one point after firing three barrels to force a fold from Yuefan Gu. From this point Di Nicola could not sustain the momentum he had earlier and he would finish Day 2 with roughly half the chips he had to begin the day.
Some notables to advance to Day 3 include Yang (1,027,000), Guoliang Wei (940,000), Matthew Davenport (704,000), Urbanovich (637,000), Di Nicola (594,000), Hadi Khadra (548,000), Andrea Dato (378,000), Qiang Xu (306,000), Andrey Pateychuk (167,000), Andrei Daniliuk (159,000) and Dmitry Gromov (90,000). Other notables who failed to find a bag by the end of the night include Shuang Luo, Felipe Ketzer, Maxime Chilaud and Giorgiy Skhulukhiya.
Day 3 begins tomorrow January 18, at 12:00 p.m. local time and is scheduled to play ten hour-long levels, with blinds starting at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all the updates for this event until a winner is crowned on Day 4, which will take place on January 19.
