Hassan Nashar Cracks Aces to Earn Chip Lead After Day 1 of $5,300 High Roller

Day 1 of the $5,300 High Roller, featuring a $750,000 guaranteed prize pool, played out today at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino as part of the 2025 Merit Poker Dolce Vita Series. So far, the event has attracted 209 entries, making it the second-largest High Roller ever held at Merit Poker.

After eight 40-minute levels, 121 players managed to bag up chips for Day 2. Leading the way is Hassan Nashar, who closed the night with 680,000 chips. He vaulted up the leaderboard after dragging a big pot with king-high in the penultimate level, then capped off the day with one of his most memorable hands so far.

On the final hand of the night, Nashar got it all in preflop with four-deuce against the aces of Kemal Aslan. Though nearly drawing dead on the flop, Nashar hit runner-runner to make a straight and bust his opponent. Nashar let out a loud “Yes! Yes!” and exchanged a high-five with Boris Smuskevicius as he pulled in the pot and secured his spot at the top of the chip counts.

Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Hassan Nashar	Guinea-Bissau	680,000	453
2	Ghassan Abou Khalil	Lebanon	555,500	370
3	Yusuf Tekin	Turkey	540,000	360
4	Amir Hassan	Tunisia	494,000	329
5	Jingxuan Zhu	China	458,500	306
6	Basel Khabbazeh	United Arab Emirates	440,000	293
7	Antoine Hasbani	Lebanon	425,000	283
8	Mekan Yusupov	Turkey	376,500	251
9	Jose Roman	Spain	348,500	232
10	Alexander Sokolovsky	Serbia	344,500	230

Lebanon's Ghassan Abou Khalil ended Day 1 as the closest challenger to Nashar with a stack of 555,500, while Yusuf Tekin of Turkey rounds out the podium positions after bagging 540,000 at the end of the night.

Some other players who amassed big stacks for Day 2 include Basel Khabbazeh (440,000), Antoine Hasbani (425,500), Mekan Yusupov (376,500), Alexander Sokolovsky (344,500), and Joseph Sabe (336,000), who picked up aces and queens in quick succession and eliminated players with both hands. A few more returning to the baize tomorrow include Vedat Yilmaz (307,000) and Merit Poker regular Dmitry Gromov (244,000).

Day 2 resumes at 6 p.m. local time on Friday, August 1, with blinds at 1,000/1,500 and a 1,500 big blind ante. Players may reenter an unlimited number of times until the end of Level 12, giving them more chances to join the growing field. The schedule for Day 2 will be confirmed shortly after play begins.