$2,200 Warm Up Day 3 | 2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series

03-16-2025 16:54 UTC+2

Bezhanyan Overtakes Shcherbakov

Kai Cocklin

Level 28 : Blinds 50,000/100,000, 100,000 ante

Kirill Shcherbakov opened to 200,000 from early position and Aren Bezhanyan defended from the big blind.

On the 8♠7♦4♠ flop, Bezhanyan checked and Shcherbakov fired out a big bet of 450,000. Bezhanyan then awkwardly put in around 800,000 and was told by the dealer he had to min-raise to 900,000, which he did. Shcherbakov called.

A Q♠ completed the flush draw on the turn and Bezhanyan moved all in for around 1,800,000, and Shcherbakov quickly folded.

Player	Chips	Progress
Aren Bezhanyan	4,100,000 2,800,000	2,800,000

Kirill Shcherbakov	3,300,000 1,100,000	1,100,000

Tags: Aren Bezhanyan Kirill Shcherbakov

03-16-2025 16:46 UTC+2

Selected Chip Counts

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Kai Cocklin

Level 28 : Blinds 50,000/100,000, 100,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Kirill Shcherbakov	4,400,000 200,000	200,000
Jan Petersen	3,500,000 2,100,000	2,100,000
Kirill Burtin	2,700,000 100,000	100,000

Rui Querido Martins	2,000,000 100,000	100,000
Dmitrii Kopyl	2,000,000 400,000	400,000
Damien Gayer	1,800,000 900,000	900,000
Fadi Zarka	1,700,000 100,000	100,000
Dmitry Gromov	1,450,000 700,000	700,000

Nikolay Ponomarev	1,400,000 855,000	855,000
Daniel Abrahamsson	1,000,000 805,000	805,000
Vladislav Doroshkov	900,000 440,000	440,000

Level: 28

Blinds: 50,000/100,000

Ante: 100,000

03-16-2025 16:26 UTC+2

Break Time

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Players are on a 20-minute break.

03-16-2025 16:23 UTC+2

More Bustouts

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Yuliyan Kolev	Busted

Timothy Kenyon	Busted
Konstantin Kvashin	Busted
Francisco Moreno	Busted
Alexandru Papazian	Busted

Kristaps Vismanis	Busted
Najib Khalaf	Busted
Baltazar Five	Busted
Yilu Yuan	Busted
Axel Hallay	Busted
Cornelis Van Gent	Busted
Clement Michaud	Busted
Damir Gabdullin	Busted
Boris Angelov	Busted

03-16-2025 16:17 UTC+2

Kvashin Hits the Rail

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Konstantin Kvashin moved his stack of around 1,100,000 into the middle from middle position and Kirill Burtin took one peek at his cards in the big blind and called.

Konstantin Kvashin: Q♠J♠ All in
Kirill Burtin: A♥Q♣

Kvashin was dominated but did pick up a bit of hope in the form of backdoor draws on the Q♥4♣9♠ flop. However, the backdoor was quickly sealed off as the 3♣ dropped on the turn, leaving Kvashin with just three outs. None of those appeared on the 4♠ river, and Kvashin had his marching orders.

Player	Chips	Progress
Kirill Burtin	2,600,000 600,000	600,000

Konstantin Kvashin	Busted

Tags: Kirill Burtin Konstantin Kvashin

03-16-2025 16:14 UTC+2

Moreno's Stack Hits Zero

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Francisco Moreno was short-stacked for most of the day and got his last 290,000 in the middle after Rui Querido Martins had opened the hijack. Once the blinds folded, Martins called to leave Moreno at risk.

Francisco Moreno: A♠7♣ All in
Rui Querido Martins: A♥K♣

Moreno needed some help from the runout and despite flopping some chop outs, he couldn't stay alive on the 9♠5♥5♣3♠6♦ board.

Player	Chips	Progress
Rui Querido Martins	2,100,000 800,000	800,000
Francisco Moreno	Busted

Tags: Francisco Moreno Rui Querido Martins

03-16-2025 16:10 UTC+2

Plenty of Action Ahead at Merit Poker!

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Don’t miss any of the exciting poker action at Merit this spring, as both the Merit Millions and Mediterranean Poker Party are on the way.

The special Merit Millions series will run from April 7-15, with a buy-in of $10,400 over four starting flights. The champion in the MIllions event will earn $1,000,000, with the rest of the prize pool distributed between players at the final table.

The Mediterranean Poker Party (MPP) returns to Merit from May 3-13, bringing with it more than $10 million in guaranteed prize pools, including a monster-sized $5,300 buy-in, $5 million guaranteed MPP Main Event.

Featuring four flights, the MPP Main Event runs from May 8-12 and could see the champion reel in a million-dollar score. In 2024, some 1,260 entries resulted in a $6,048,000 prize pool, much more than the advertised $5 million guarantee.

Satellites have already started running on GGPoker, so don't miss out and win your way to Merit this spring!

Find More Information Here

03-16-2025 16:01 UTC+2

Grigorev Back Over a Million

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Iurii Grigorev got back on track after just doubling up through Kristaps Vismanis. There was an open from middle position from Vismanis and Grigorev's stack of around 500,000 went into the middle from the small blind. Vismanis made the call.

Iurii Grigorev: A♥K♠ All in
Kristaps Vismanis: A♦Q♠

Both players paired their ace on the river after the board ran out 6♠3♥4♣9♥A♠, but the kicker of Grigorev played and he was shipped the pot.

Player	Chips	Progress
Iurii Grigorev	1,200,000 500,000	500,000
Kristaps Vismanis	300,000 380,000	380,000

Tags: Iurii Grigorev Kristaps Vismanis

03-16-2025 15:57 UTC+2

Shcherbakov Storms to the Top of the Counts

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Kai Cocklin

Level 27 : Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante

Kirill Shcherbakov knows exactly how to play pocket jacks and it sent his stack storming to the top of the leaderboard.

Yilu Yuan opened the button to 175,000 and Shcherbakov three-bet from the small blind to 700,000. After the big blind folded, Yuan shoved for around 2,000,000, and Shcherbakov quickly called.

Yilu Yuan: A♥5♥ All in
Kirill Shcherbakov: J♥J♣

Yuan still had decent equity and picked up four more outs when the flop came down 10♦3♦2♣ as he improved to a wheel draw. A 2♦ on the turn kept the jacks of Shcherbakov in the lead, and Yuan was eliminated when the 10♠ dropped on the river.

Big, big pot for Shcherbakov.

Player	Chips	Progress
Kirill Shcherbakov	4,600,000 2,100,000	2,100,000
Yilu Yuan	Busted

Tags: Kirill Shcherbakov Yilu Yuan