Giorgiy Skhulukhiya Leads 16 Survivors into Final Day of $7,500 High Roller

A whirlwind day has come to a close inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus, with just 16 players remaining in the $7,500 High Roller.

Day 2 of the highest buy-in event of the 2026 Merit Poker NOIR Series began with 78 players who had advanced from Day 1 taking their seats, while late registration remained open. Once the registration period closed, the field had grown to 209 entries, creating a $1,345,960 prize pool that comfortably surpassed the guarantee.

With the top prize now firmly in sight, Giorgiy Skhulukhiya emerged as the overnight chip leader, bagging 3,115,000 to put himself in pole position for the title. The Georgian is the only player returning with more than 100 big blinds, giving him a sizeable stack to work with when play resumes.

Closest to Skhulukhiya is Armenian Gor Musinyan, who will return in second place, while just behind in third, Julian Pineda Lozano is flying the flag for Colombia, completing a multinational podium.

Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Giorgiy Skhulukhiya	Georgia	3,115,000	104
2	Gor Musinyan	Armenia	2,435,000	81
3	Julian Pineda Lozano	Colombia	2,180,000	73
4	Daniil Kiselev	Russian Federation	2,085,000	70
5	Yesset Aimukhanov	Kazakhstan	1,860,000	62
6	Illia Hurin	Ukraine	1,705,000	57
7	Zorlucan Er	Turkey	1,585,000	53
8	Alexey Borovkov	Russian Federation	1,510,000	50
9	Chunghau Liao	Tajikistan	1,205,000	40
10	Leonid Orman	Russian Federation	890,000	30

There is plenty of pedigree further down the leaderboard, with EPT Sochi Main Event champion Arsenii Karmatckii (875,000), two-time WSOP bracelet winner Tobias Peters (585,000) and WPT Main Event champion Dmitry Gromov (420,000) all still in contention.

Day 2 Action

Late registration closed four levels into Day 2, at which point the payouts were announced, as 31 players were set to make the money for at least $12,000, while $300,000 awaited the eventual champion.

It took only a few hours of play to reach the bubble, which proved to be a short-lived affair, lasting five hands before Natalia Nikitina found herself on the wrong side of a blind-versus-blind flip. Unable to come out on top, she was eliminated in 32nd place, leaving the remaining 31 players safely in the money.

Once the bubble burst, a flurry of eliminations followed. Gaspare Sposato (29th) and Caner Gunes (28th) were among the first to fall in the money, with Joris Ruijs (26th) and start-of-day chip leader Aliaksandr Hirs (23rd) soon joining them on the rail.

The initial plan to play until a final table was reached was then changed, as it was announced that play would continue until just 16 players remained before the tournament bagged up for the night. Four more quick-fire eliminations followed, with Aleksei Opalikhin's elimination in 17th place ensuring the rest of the field safe passage to the final day.

  The surviving players will return at 1:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, August 2, with the tournament playing down to a winner. Play will resume with 25 minutes remaining on Level 22, with blinds of 15,000/30,000 and a 30,000 big blind ante.

Each of the 16 remaining players is guaranteed $16,100, but with just 15 eliminations standing between them and the trophy, the $300,000 first-place prize is now firmly in sight.