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

03-16-2025 16:17 UTC+2

Kvashin Hits the Rail

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 16:23 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 16:26 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.

Level: 28

Blinds: 50,000/100,000

Ante: 100,000

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

03-16-2025 16:54 UTC+2

Bezhanyan Overtakes Shcherbakov

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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 17:00 UTC+2

Flashback: Elie Farah Takes Down 2024 Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event

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Kai Cocklin

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

Last year in the 2024 Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 Main Event, It took nearly 12 hour-long levels for a winner to emerge from the 41 players who entered the final day at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.

Elie Farah was the last player standing, scoring five final table knockouts and last defeating Felipe Ketzer in heads-up play to take home the title and top prize of $338,500.

Farah notably was down to his last 125,000 chips on the stone bubble during Day 3 aciton, worth just five big blinds at that time. His previous best score before this comes from an eighth-place finish in the 2022 Merit Poker Retro Series Main Event for $30,255. This victory not only exceeds his previous best more than tenfold, it also triples his total live tournament earnings which before this event stood at just under $150,000.

2024 Carmen Series Main Event Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize (USD)
1	Elie Farah	Lebanon	$338,500
2	Felipe Ketzer	Brazil	$249,200
3	Dinesh Alt	Switzerland	$153,000
4	Bart Lybaert	Belgium	$113,100
5	Dmitry Gromov	Russian Federation	$84,700
6	Tahsin Cankurtaranli	Turkey	$68,400
7	Andrey Litvinov	Russian Federation	$56,600
8	Maher Achour	Tunisia	$45,100
9	Danut Chisu	Romania	$33,900

Read the Full Recap Here

03-16-2025 17:10 UTC+2

Spisak, Sabau, and Madani Hit the Rail

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Kai Cocklin

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

Three more eliminations were recorded after the break with Krzysztof Spisak being one of the players to hit the rail.

Spisak had his last few big blinds in the middle on a flop of 2♠7♠6♥ and was put at risk by Jan Petersen.

Krzysztof Spisak: 5♣5♠ All in
Jan Petersen: Q♠4♠

Spisak was in the lead but was left drawing dead when the 9♠ landed on the turn. A meaningless 10♠ dropped on the river, and Spisak joined Ehsan Madani & Razvan Nicolae Sabau on the rail.

Player	Chips	Progress
Jan Petersen	3,000,000 500,000	500,000
Ehsan Madani	Busted
Krzysztof Spisak	Busted
Razvan Nicolae Sabau	Busted

Tags: Ehsan Madani Jan Petersen Krzysztof Spisak Razvan Nicolae Sabau

03-16-2025 17:22 UTC+2

Skhulukhiya Extracts Value From Malinov

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Kai Cocklin

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

Atanas Pavlov opened to 200,000 from the hijack and got called by Aren Bezhanyan in the cutoff, Atanas Malinov on the button, and Giorgiy Skhulukhiya from the big blind.

All three checked the K♣5♥4♦ flop to the 3♣ turn, where Skhulukhiya led for 475,000. Pavlov and Bezhanyan folded, but Malinov stuck around.

When the 6♠ fell on the river, the board got a lot dicier, prompting Skhulukhiya to bet a small amount of 350,000. After some tanking, Malinov called.

"Is two pair good?" said Skhulukhiya before he rolled over 5♣4♥.

"Two pair is good," replied Malinov.

Player	Chips	Progress
Giorgiy Skhulukhiya	4,400,000 800,000	800,000

Atanas Malinov	4,300,000 2,100,000	2,100,000
Aren Bezhanyan	4,000,000 100,000	100,000

Atanas Pavlov	2,900,000 2,055,000	2,055,000