Dawid Smolka Dominates Day 2 of $5,300 High Roller to Hold Chip Lead
Day 2 of the $5,300 High Roller at the 2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series has officially wrapped up, with 39 players securing a bag for Day 3 inside the magnificent Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.
A total of 124 new entries joined the 146 from Day 1, pushing the field to a record-breaking 270 entries, the largest Merit Poker high roller event to date. This surge in participation generated a $1,242,000 prize pool, more than doubling the $500,000 guarantee. When all is said and done, the eventual champion will walk away with a massive $260,000 first-place prize, the biggest ever awarded in a Merit Poker high roller.
After all the bags were collected, Poland’s Dawid Smolka topped the chip counts with an impressive 2,700,000. With close to $1,000,000 in live tournament earnings and a third-place finish in the 2023 Merit Poker Gatsby Series High Roller, Smolka is no stranger to making deep runs in big buy-in events. Armed with both a formidable chip stack and the skills to put it to use, he will be a menace at any table tomorrow as he looks to navigate his way onto the final table.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dawid Smolka | Poland | 2,700,000 | 135 |
| 2 | Simas Karaliunas | Lithuania | 2,170,000 | 109 |
| 3 | Dmitry Kataev | Russia | 1,840,000 | 92 |
| 4 | Kyosuke Nagami | Japan | 1,540,000 | 77 |
| 5 | Iurii Grigorev | Russia | 1,220,000 | 61 |
| 6 | Ibrahim Ghasan | Lebanon | 1,055,000 | 53 |
| 7 | Charbel Salloum | Lebanon | 940,000 | 47 |
| 8 | Peteris Enders | Latvia | 925,000 | 46 |
| 9 | Martynas Vitkauskas | Lithuania | 880,000 | 44 |
| 10 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 860,000 | 43 |
A large portion of Dawid Smolka’s chips came in a massive pot against Aren Bezhanyan, where Smolka check-shoved over Bezhanyan’s sizable river bet. Bezhanyan quickly called with an overpair, only to be left devastated when Smolka tabled two pair, sending him to the rail. This pivotal hand propelled Smolka into the chip lead—a position he never relinquished as he continued accumulating chips for the rest of the day.
Trailing Smolka in the chip counts is Simas Karaliunas, who bagged 2,170,000 to enter Day 3 second in the standings. The Lithuanian collected a significant portion of his stack after eliminating Felipe Ketzer close to the bubble, after Ketzer four-bet ripped pocket fives into Karaliunas' pocket queens. Sitting in third place is Dmitry Kataev, who will return for Day 3 with 1,840,000 chips, putting himself in a strong position to make a push for the final table.
Once late registration closed, eliminations came at a rapid pace, and it wasn’t long before tournament staff announced that play would conclude for the night once the money bubble had burst. Unfortunately for Yayun Liu, he was the last player to leave empty-handed. Liu three-bet shoved pocket tens over an open from Kataev, only to run straight into Kataev’s pocket kings. With no miracle runout from the dealer, Liu was officially crowned the bubble boy of this record-breaking High Roller.
Other notables returning to the baize for Day 3 include Kyosuke Nagami (1,540,000), Mario Colavita (790,000), bracelet winner Tobias Peters (630,000), old-school poker legend Johnny Lodden (620,000), Axel Hallay (585,000), and Samuel Ju (470,000), who already picked up some silverware at this series by winning a bounty tournament yesterday. Also joining them will be Soraya Estrada (460,000), Fahredin Mustafov (425,000), and Andrey Pateychuk (390,000).
Day 3 kicks off at 1:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday, March 18, with five minutes remaining in Level 20, where blinds are 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 big blind ante. With all remaining players guaranteed at least $7,600, the focus now shifts to navigating their way onto the final table before setting their sights on the $260,000 top prize.
Payouts
As always, PokerNews will provide live updates from the tournament floor as players battle it out to secure a spot at the final table and beyond. Stay tuned for all the action!