Davor Pistalo Bursts Bubble to Gain End of Day 2 Chip Lead in Merit Poker High Roller

Day 2 of the €2,750 High Roller concluded inside the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva as the field grew to 128 total entries by the time late registration closed. A total of 42 new entries were added on Day 2, pushing the prize pool to €294,400. By the end of play, just 17 players remained, all of whom return for the final day in the money.

Leading the way at the close of Day 2 is Davor Pistalo, who carries 1,800,000 into the final day. Sitting close behind is Giorgiy Skhulukhiya with 1,675,000, while Nazar Buhaiov rounds out the top three on 1,595,000. Only Timur Margolin (1,450,000) and Andrey Golubev (1,285,000) are the other players to be in the seven-figure club of chips.

Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Davor Pistalo	Croatia	1,800,000	72
2	Giorgiy Skhulukhiya	Georgia	1,675,000	67
3	Nazar Buhaiov	Ukraine	1,595,000	64
4	Timur Margolin	Israel	1,450,000	58
5	Andrey Golubev	Kazakhstan	1,285,000	51
6	Bojan Berberovic	Serbia	765,000	31
7	Fabrizio Lo Carbo	Italy	650,000	26
8	Illia Petrytsia	Ukraine	605,000	24
9	Nikolai Ivanov	Russia	585,000	23
10	Seref Anar	Turkey	575,000	23

Day 2 Action

Once late registration had closed and the official prize pool was announced, it didn't take too long for the eliminations to start coming in. Mikhail Zavoloka was fresh off his fifth-place finish in the Merit Poker Cup and probably oozing with confidence. However, a limp-jam with sevens into Jon Kyte's cowboys didn't go his way and he was just as quickly out of the tournament as he was in.

Third-placed Golubev won a pivotal flip against Mikhail Ketlerov to help him gain some momentum. Kyte was on track for cash number two of the series, but that dream came to an abrupt end thanks to Srdan Milicevic. First, Milicevic got lucky to beat the queens of Kyte with ace-jack, then not long after, he finished Kyte off by spiking a set of eights to trump Kyte's jacks.

When the play got down to the final three tables of 21, the play slowed considerably, due to the fact only a few spots separated the remaining players and the money. Erdal Gulseven had been on the wrong end of a cooler before he jammed the flop with a king-high flush draw only to be in horrible shape against Caner Gunes' nut flush draw. No improvement for Gulseven meant he was out of the tournament.

Toni Ravnak attempted to bust Charbel Salloum on the soft bubble by jamming jack-five off blind-on-blind, but Salloum made the correct call for his tournament life, holding king-ten. A ten on the flop sealed it and Ravnak was left with just a few big blinds. Ravnak couldn't pull off a spin-up as he ended up busting to Buhaiov's straight a few hands later, sending the tournament onto the direct bubble.

Pistalo had a rough day at the tables yesterday, but came in ready to play today and quietly built up his chip stack early in the day, and after the dinner break and closing of registration, Pistalo had already nestled himself around the top of the counts. The surviving short stacks have Pistalo to thank, as he was the player to burst the bubble in the last hand of the night.

Russia's Sergey Kudryavtsev was the clear short-stack and he knew he was the odds-on most likely one to be the last player to leave empty-handed. So, first he shoved the button and picked up the blinds, increasing his stack by 25%, then the next hand, he jammed the cutoff with king-eight suited, but Pistalo was lying in wait with cowboys. Kudryavtsev picked up a lot of outs on the turn, but a brick on the river sealed his fate as the bubble boy of the tournament.

Some other notable players making it through to the final day include Bojan Berberovic (765,000), who just finished fourth in the Merit Poker Cup. Also surviving today's grind is Fabrizio Lo Carbo (650,000) thanks to doubling up with aces on the bubble, two-time bracelet winner Blaz Zerjav (480,000), Day 1 chip leader Nemanja Tatar (385,000), and Merit Poker Regular Chady Ojeil (245,000), who despite sitting at the bottom of the pack, has the experience to know how to work a short-stack.

All those coming back for the final day have locked up at least a min-cash of €4,000 and will return on January 19 at 1 p.m. local time to play down to a winner. Action resumes with four minutes left at Level 21, where blinds are 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante, as attention turns to the final table and beyond, where €75,000 awaits the eventual High Roller champion.