Fausto Tantillo Starts at the Top on Main Event Day 2

Day 2 of the €1,650 Main Event at the Merit Poker Montenegro Championship gets underway at noon today inside the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva, with the field from the four starting flights combining for the first time.

Following the conclusion of Day 1d, which attracted 17 entries and saw 10 players advance, the tournament has climbed to 344 total entries. With 150 players returning for Day 2, that number includes two players who successfully qualified twice and will take their best stack forward.

Sitting alone with almost 100 big blinds more than his closest rival is Fausto Tantillo, who finished the opening flights as the overall chip leader with 825,000. Russia's Nikolai Isaev is in second with 613,500, while Amir Hassan rounds out the top three after bagging 579,000.

Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Fausto Tantillo	Italy	825,000	330
2	Nikolai Isaev	Russia	613,500	245
3	Amir Hassan	Tunisia	579,000	232
4	Atilla Saracoglu	Turkey	569,500	228
5	Igor Abelmasov	Russia	545,000	218
6	Andrei Daniliuk	Russia	540,000	216
7	Bobby James	United Kingdom	520,000	208
8	Vladimir Lappo	Belarus	519,000	208
9	Oleksii Shchukin	Ukraine	487,000	195
10	Ufuk Erkmen	Turkey	453,500	181

Turkey’s Atilla Saracoglu (569,500) remains just outside the podium positions after topping the Day 1c counts, while several others also carry stacks north of half a million into Day 2. Among them are Igor Abelmasov (545,000), Andrei Daniliuk (540,000), along with Bobby James (520,000) and Belarus’ Vladimir Lappo (519,000), all firmly in the mix near the top of the standings.

Several familiar faces are also lurking just outside the top five, including multiple bracelet winner Timur Margolin (449,500), Uri Reichenstein (438,500), Merit Poker Gatsby Series Main Event runner-up Bogdan Jontulovic (419,500), Day 1d chip leader Nikolay Ponomarev (307,000), Jon Kyte (274,000), Shai Zurr (205,000), Gabi Livshitz (144,000), and Nikolay Fal (96,500).

Play will resume today to blinds of 1,000/2,500 with a 2,500 big blind ante, and levels will be an hour in length. Late registration remains open until the end of Level 14, at which point the official prize pool and payouts will be confirmed. Further details on the schedule for the day will be announced shortly after cards get in the air.