Nemanja Tatar Holds Chip Lead After Day 1 of €2,750 High Roller

Day 1 of the €2,750 High Roller, featuring an expected prize pool of €200,000, played out today at the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva as part of the 2026 Merit Poker Montenegro Championship. So far, the event has attracted 86 entries, where only 51 managed to find a bag at the of the night.

After eight 40-minute levels, Montenegro's own Nemanja Tatar ended atop of the chip counts, after he bagged 628,500. Sitting close behind as the only other player to surpass the 600,000 mark is IIlia Petrytsia, who finished the day with 615,500. Nazar Buhaiov rounds out the top three with 471,000, and all three players are well-positioned heading into Day 2.

Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Nemanja Tatar	Montenegro	628,500	419
2	Illia Petrytsia	Ukraine	615,500	410
3	Nazar Buhaiov	Ukraine	471,000	314
4	Sadik Alibeyoglu	Turkey	364,500	243
5	Bobby James	United Kingdom	355,000	237
6	Nikolay Ivanov	Bulgaria	351,000	234
7	Sergey Kudryavtsev	Russia	303,500	202
8	Alain Hajj	Lebanon	286,500	191
9	Tommy Mokhtari	Sweden	278,000	185
10	Nikolay Ponomarev	United Kingdom	271,000	181

A lot of Petrytsia’s stack was gained during the penultimate level of the night when he sent Antoine Hasbani home. Hasbani moved all in for roughly the size of the pot on the river, and Petrytsia called. While Hasbani tabled top pair top kicker, Petrytsia revealed pocket aces. With that pot sent his way, Petrytsia moved up the chip counts and remained there until the end of the day.

Also making it through with a top ten stack is Bobby James of the United Kingdom, who has enjoyed a strong start to the festival. After finishing 14th in the Merit Poker Cup, James wasted little time jumping into the High Roller. He built his stack early after getting paid off with top two pair, then navigated the rest of the day comfortably, bagging 355,000 chips.

The end of the day proved profitable for Russia’s Sergey Kudryavtsev, who found himself on the right side of a classic cooler. Kudryavtsev held pocket aces against the pocket kings of Stojan Vazic, and after a clean runout, his stack climbed to more than 200 big blinds with only a few hands remaining in the day. Also finishing inside the top ten were Alain Hajj (286,500) and Nikolay Ponomarev (271,000).

Some other notables who survived the Day 1 field include three-time bracelet winner Timur Margolin (257,000), Sebastian Szychulski (234,000), Merit Poker regular Chady Ojeil (177,000), Alexander Lakhov (172,500), two-time bracelet winner Blaz Zerjav (153,500), Uri Reichenstein (135,000), Jon Kyte (78,000), and Alisa Sibgatova (48,000).

Day 2 resumes at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, January 18, 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.