Paul Esau in the Hunt as Merit Montenegro Main Event Reaches Final Day

The €1,650 Main Event at the Merit Poker Montenegro Championship is down to its final day inside the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva, where one player will lift the trophy and walk away with the €110,000 top prize.

A total of 414 players entered this year’s Main Event, creating a €571,320 prize pool and drawing an international field. After four days of play, just nine players remain, all returning today with a guaranteed €11,020 as they chase the title and the biggest payout of the tournament.

Norway’s Jon Kyte starts the final day as the one to catch with 11,700,000 chips, giving him a healthy cushion at the top of the counts. He is followed by Germany’s Paul Esau (8,625,000) and Israel’s Timur Margolin (5,275,000), who round out the top three.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Eric Sands	San Marino	3,600,000	29
2	Nikolay Fal	Russian Federation	4,325,000	35
3	Ufuk Erkmen	Turkey	2,800,000	22
4	Yaser Sakarya	Turkey	1,950,000	16
5	Oleksii Shchukin	Ukraine	1,125,000	9
6	Paul Esau	Germany	8,625,000	69
7	Andrei Daniliuk	Russian Federation	1,825,000	15
8	Timur Margolin	Israel	5,275,000	42
9	Jon Kyte	Norway	11,700,000	94

Also returning with workable stacks are Nikolay Fal (4,325,000) and Eric Sands (3,600,000), both well positioned in the middle of the pack. Further back are Ufuk Erkmen (2,800,000), Yaser Sakarya (1,950,000), and Andrei Daniliuk (1,825,000), while Oleksii Shchukin (1,125,000) returns as the short stack and will be looking for an early double to give himself the best shot of capturing the title.

Cards go in the air at noon local time with 40 minutes remaining in Level 30, where blinds will be 50,000/125,000 with a 125,000 big blind ante. With the final table set and the biggest jumps still to come, attention now turns to who will navigate the last stretch and be crowned €1,650 Main Event champion in Budva.