Ali Moein Dominates Day 1b of the Merit Poker Carmen Series $2,200 Warmup
During the last break of the night, Ali Moein approached accomplished pro Uri Reichenstein seeking some tips for navigating his way through the tournament. Reichenstein told him to just concentrate on making the best decisions on every hand, blocking out what is going on around the room and what other players are doing.
Moein took that advice to heart, as he steamrolled his way into building a monstrous chip stack at the end of Day 1b of the Merit Poker Carmen Series $2,200 Warmup. Moein finished with 758,000, more than 200,000 what the Day 1a chip leader bagged up. Moein did his biggest damage in a hand against Bakhos Joumaa on the final level, when he snap-called all in with trip jacks to win a massive pot.
Right behind him is Gabi Livshitz, who enjoyed a dream start to his series. Livshitz won the $500 Turbo Bounty event last night, the first day of the festival, then continued that momentum in the Warmup today. He cracked Halil Baybars’ pocket queens with a rivered straight early in the day and kept building his stack from there, ending up with 664,000.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ali Moein | 758,000 | 303 |
| 2 | Gabi Livshitz | 664,000 | 266 |
| 3 | Philippe Souki | 504,000 | 202 |
| 4 | Eduard Barsegian | 498,000 | 199 |
| 5 | Rabih Saad | 493,000 | 196 |
| 6 | Roman Gadzhiev | 484,500 | 194 |
| 7 | Koray Korkmaz | 441,000 | 176 |
| 8 | Wael Sarkis | 427,500 | 171 |
| 9 | Charbel Salloum | 414,000 | 166 |
| 10 | Martynas Mockevicius | 406,500 | 163 |
A group of players who are no strangers to making it through big fields also had a fruitful day on the felt. Philippe Souki, a 2022 WSOP finalist, bagged up 504,000, while Thomas Eychenne, who won nearly $1 million in the Bahamas last month, finished with 351,500. Reichenstein also made it through the day with 368,000.
Those who weren’t quite as fortunate to make it through to Day 2 include Merit Poker regular Gabriel Akiki, Merit Poker Western Series Main Event champion Orthodoxos Orthodoxou, and Dawid Kuliberda, who busted three times over three levels. They’ll still have plenty of chances of making it deep in this event, as there are two starting flights to come, a turbo Day 1c tonight and a turbo Day 1d tomorrow morning. Late registration is also open until the end of Level 12.
A field of 249 players gathered in the poker room at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in North Cyprus, nearly double the amount from the first starting flight. Only 123 survived the day, and they’ll join the 62 players who bagged up on Day 1a for the start of Day 2 tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. local time.
Stay tuned as PokerNews will be there to provide all the action for the remainder of the festival.
flop. Bakhos Joumaa in the cutoff then raised to 75,000 and Moein tanked for about a minute before calling.
and Moein checked over to Joumaa, who shoved all in for 170,000. Moein nearly beat him into the pot and turned over 
for trip jacks. Joumaa had 
and needed to hit an ace on the river, but missed the 
as Moein raked in the massive pot to eclipse 500,000 and take the chip lead late on Day 1b.
and Danut Chisu also called in the big blind before Toni Kaukua raised to 28,000 from middle position.
out-kicked.
and Akiki flung his cards into the middle before heading for the exit.
, Andrey Danilyuk bet 26,500 from middle position before Martynas Racinskas raised to 80,000 out of the big blind. 
and he was sent to the rail.
flop.
.
on a board of 
and was up against two opponents with 
and 
. Salloum's kings stayed in front to beat both players and push him up toward the top of the chip leaderboard.
for the flopped wheel as he scooped another pot to move past 300,000.
for two pair, but Etim had 
when Khalifeh moved all in on the button for 61,000.