With around 10,000 chips already in the pot on a 10♥K♥6♣ board, Shankui Li fired 3,600 and Huseyin Tekerek flicked in the call on the button.
A 3♦ landed on the turn and Li again gathered chips and threw out 9,000. Tekerek waited for a while before he tossed in a raise to 20,000. Li had around 30,000 behind and after thinking it over, he elected to fold.
A full board of 10♣7♦2♠J♥6♦ was already showing on the table with all the chips in the middle, and Sachin Joshi had his A♦A♥ exposed to the table. That must have been the best hand as Yaniv Shushan's stack was being counted down by the dealer and sent over to Joshi, who doubled up to around 220,000.
Shushan may have lost that hand, but still has around 70,000 in his stack to work with at the mid-way point of Level 6.
On a board of 5♦5♥7♥A♦, Paul Runcan had fired 23,000 and the button shoved for around 90,000. Runcan wasted no time in putting in the call.
Button: 8♦5♣
Paul Runcan: Q♠5♠
Both players had flopped trips, but it was Runcan who had the better kicker and was in the driver's seat to take the pot. A 10♣ landed on the river, which meant the button was eliminated, and Runcan's stack shot up to around 300,000.
The action kicked off with Rudolf Fourie making it 3,000 from middle position and Charbel Daou calling on the button. The small blind three-bet to 11,500, which Evgeniy Golenko called in the big blind. Both Fourie and Daou also called.
On the flop of 10♣4♦2♠, the small blind and Golenko checked, then Fourie over-bet shoved for around 90,000. One by one, all three of his opponents folded, and Fourie took the pot.
"You have nothing," said one of the players.
"Nothing?" replied Fourie, as he slowly revealed the 10♦ to the table.
Last January at the 2024 Merit Poker Western Series, France's Mohamed Mokrani was crowned champion of the $3,300 Main Event, outlasting the 672-entry field and defeating Nichan Khorchidian in a brief heads-up duel to take home the title and top prize of $342,500. The $1,500,000 guarantee was easily eclipsed, with the final prize pool confirmed at $1,854,720.
Mokrani started the final day as the fifth-largest stack and went mostly under the radar before a late-night surge catapulted him ahead of perennial chip leaders Felipe Ketzer and Khorchidian during three-handed play. Mokrani only had $15,211 in recorded lifetime tournament earnings prior to this event, and the win was nearly forty times greater than his previous-best cash of $8,124.
2024 Western Series $3,300 Main Event Final Table Results
Traian Stanciu and Ramez Haddad were playing a pot and got all of their chips into the middle on the turn with the board reading 9♠2♠3♥4♠.
Ramez Haddad: 10♠7♠
Traian Stanciu: K♠J♠
Haddad was drawing dead and had no chance to win the hand, which seemed to be one of many coolers on the table as some of the players requested a table change to get away from it!
A meaningless 9♦ fell on the river, and Stanciu collected the full stack of Haddad to send his count up to around 250,000.
Confusion arose in a hand with three players still in on the river with around 35,000 chips in the pot. Ashraf Akeh had bet 20,000 and Ahmad Abdelhadi called, before Evgeniy Golenko shoved for 35,000.
Akeh then announced "I have two pair," before he realized that Golenko hadn't called, but in fact shoved. The floor were called and the action was allowed to continue, where Akeh eventually folded. Abdelhadi then went into the tank and said, "This is a very weird hand," before he called to put Golenko at risk.
Golenko then showed a straight with K♣10♥, and Abdelhadi was forced to reveal he had backdoored trips with K♥Q♥.
