Kirill Burtin wasted no time after the break to get stuck into a pot.
The button opened to 2,500 and Burtin three-bet the small blind to 9,500. The button called.
Burtin bet 7,500 on the 5♠6♦J♣ flop and 10,500 on the 9♥ turn, which the button called both times.
On the 2♥ river, both players knuckled it to showdown, where Burtin revealed A♦8♠ for just ace-high. Surprisingly, that was good as the button mucked, and Burtin raked in the pot.
Merit Poker has always found ways to keep things fun both on and off the felt, and their latest creation might be their most entertaining yet.
Say hello to the Player Card, a feature that first appeared during May’s Mediterranean Poker Party and has now returned for the 2025 Dolce Vita Series. Inspired by classic sports video games, these cards offer a playful take on player personalities, giving everyone a chance to rate themselves in key poker (and poker-adjacent) skills.
Chady Player Card
Each card includes six categories that players score from 0 to 100. There’s Aggro, which reflects how aggressive their playing style is, and Luck, a self-assessed measure of how fortunate they feel at the tables. Bluff covers confidence in their deception game, while All-In rates how well they handle high-pressure, shove-or-fold spots. Tilt is all about emotional control, and Vibe captures table presence, charisma, and general energy.
The overall rating is calculated as the average of the categories, with Tilt excluded from the math, though, certainly not from the fun.
The cards are part of Merit Poker’s growing line of creative content, which also includes in-depth player profiles, behind-the-scenes videos, and social media features that spotlight the human side of tournament poker. It is all part of Merit’s effort to make poker more personal, more engaging, and above all, more fun.
Abraham Passet opened from early position to 2,000 and the cutoff called. Xiaosheng Zheng then squeezed it up to 9,000 from the small blind, which both Passet and the cutoff called.
All three checked the K♣6♦9♥ flop to the 9♠ turn, where Passet fired 13,000 when the action got to him. That was enough to get the job done as both of his opponents folded.
At the same time, Dmitry Gromov and Joris Ruijs had built a pot of around 100,000 on a 4♠8♣2♠Q♠ board. Ruijs bet 21,000 on the turn from middle position, and Gromov released his hand from the button.
Some players just seem to feel at home at Merit, and Hassan Nashar might be one of them. Last year, he topped the Day 1b chip counts in the $1,100 IPO Master. This year? He’s already back in the spotlight, leading the way after Day 1a of the newly-upgraded $2,200 edition.
A lot has changed since then. The buy-in has doubled, the guarantee has jumped to a cool $1,000,000, and the overall pace of entries is unfolding differently. Day 1b brought in 404 entries last year. This year, just 121 so far, but that’s only part of the picture.
The IPO Master is no longer just a value-packed opener, it's positioning itself as a serious flagship event in its own right. It’s attracting players who know how to adjust, survive, and thrive no matter what version of the tournament they’re facing.
With three starting flights still to go, there’s a long way to go before we see the full picture. But for now, Nashar’s familiar spot at the top feels like the perfect way to open the next chapter of this ever-evolving event.
Have you heard about MyStack by PokerNews? It is a free-to-use tool built into the PokerNews website that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages. MyStack directly connects you to PokerNews' live reporting pages, making you an even bigger part of the action in the events you play.
MyStack is a free poker tool and PokerNews activates MyStack for every event it is live reporting from, regardless of that tournament's buy-in. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!
button in Safari
