Jon Kyte Bags Chip Lead as €1,650 Main Event Reaches Final Nine

Day 4 of the €1,650 Main Event at the Merit Poker Montenegro Championship has wrapped up inside the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva, with the tournament down to its final nine players and €110,000 top prize waiting for the eventual champion.

The Main Event drew 414 entries, creating a €571,320 prize pool and attracting players from all across the globe. After four gruelling days of poker, that field has been narrowed to a single table, with the remaining players returning on Sunday, January 25, at noon to decide the title.

Norway’s Jon Kyte will return to the baize as the chip leader after closing out Day 4 with 11,700,000. Germany’s Paul Esau moves up into second with 8,625,000, while Timur Margolin sits third on 5,275,000, as the same three names remain at the top heading into the final day.

Final Table Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Jon Kyte	Norway	11,700,000	94
2	Paul Esau	Germany	8,625,000	69
3	Timur Margolin	Israel	5,275,000	42
4	Nikolay Fal	Russian Federation	4,325,000	34
5	Eric Sands	San Marino	3,600,000	29
6	Ufuk Erkmen	Turkey	2,800,000	22
7	Yaser Sakarya	Turkey	1,950,000	16
8	Andrei Daniliuk	Russian Federation	1,825,000	15
9	Oleksii Shchukin	Ukraine	1,125,000	9

Day 4 Action

When play began, 24 hopefuls took to the felt with the shared aim of reaching the final table. The action started fast, with a quarter of the field hitting the rail inside the first hour. Pasquale Di Ceglie and Never Maryanyan were the first to go, followed soon after by Bogdan Jontulovic, whose cowboys were cracked by Yaser Sakarya’s ladies.

Starting the day with the biggest stack, Kyte wasted little time turning up the aggression, raising often and involving himself in numerous pots. Shai Zurr was Kyte's first casualty when he three-bet jammed into Kyte’s aces and found no help with pocket sevens.

Kyte struck again shortly after, check-raising Aleksandar Tot on the flop with air before jamming the turn after picking up a flush draw. Tot called off with trips and was left with only his 19th-place payout when Kyte spiked his flush on the river.

The main headline from Day 3 was Nikolai Isaev’s climb from virtually a chip and a chair to one of the big stacks, but his run came to an end on Day 4. He first agonisingly folded when Milos Miskovic shoved over his river bet, before getting all in a few hands later with fours against Miskovic’s pocket jacks and coming out second best.

Hindsight can be cruel, and Miskovic may look back on one key moment from this series. Margolin opened, Miskovic three-bet, and Kyte cold four-bet jammed. Margolin tank-called off his top-three stack, prompting Miskovic to show queens and fold. Kyte and Margolin chopped the pot with ace-king, but Miskovic saw he would have flopped a full house, a result that would have tripled his stack with 16 players remaining.

The next shuffle proved fatal for Miskovic, as he got the rest of his chips in with pocket nines against the ace-king of Nikolay Fal, lost the race, and was eliminated. Kyte then won a massive flip to knock out Mohamed Ameur Hammi, opening a clear gap at the top, before becoming the first player to reach eight figures when his pocket kings held against Predrag Premovic.

Andrei Daniliuk was one card from the showers, but a miracle river gave him the nuts, leaving Pablo Redrado with just over a big blind. Redrado managed to ladder one pay jump before exiting after Dorjan Ushe was eliminated by Eric Sands, leaving the tournament on the final table bubble.

The final elimination of the day fell to Bljerim Imeri, who shoved pocket treys into the pocket kings of Paul Esau. With no help arriving, Imeri exited in tenth place, setting up the final table for the €1,650 Main Event.

The remaining nine players return to 40 minutes left in Level 30, where blinds will be 50,000/125,000 with a 125,000 big blind ante. All nine players are guaranteed €11,020 for reaching the final table, with play continuing until a winner is crowned and the €110,000 top prize is awarded.