Roman Gadzhiev, Ali Moein Dominate Day 1a of the Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 Main Event
There’s something about Day 1s that brings out the best of Ali Moein.
Just five days ago, Moein cruised through his opening flight of the Warmup event here at the Merit Poker Carmen Series, building up a commanding chip lead and riding that momentum to a 54th-place finish. Today, on Day 1a of the $3,300 Main Event, he busted one player with ace-queen over nines, then took out former chip leader Mounir Habib with two eights. He ended up with yet another impressive stack of 559,000.
But Moein isn’t the tournament chip leader after the opening flight. He wasn’t even the top stack at his table. Sitting to his immediate left was Roman Gadzhiev, who won a more than 300,000-chip pot off Moein in the last level by cracking pocket kings with the nut flush. Gadzhiev, who finished 23rd in the Warmup, bagged up 821,000, far and away the top stack at the end of the day as he’s well positioned for another deep run here at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in North Cyprus.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Gadzhiev | 821,000 | 328 |
| 2 | Denis Kapustin | 577,500 | 231 |
| 3 | Ali Moein | 559,000 | 224 |
| 4 | Recep Aydemir | 554,500 | 222 |
| 5 | Boris Smuskevicius | 538,000 | 215 |
| 6 | Anatoly Korochenskiy | 485,000 | 194 |
| 7 | Aleksandr Ivanov | 480,000 | 192 |
| 8 | Jack Sinclair | 469,500 | 188 |
| 9 | Mehmet Erceylan | 461,000 | 184 |
| 10 | Eli Saad | 432,000 | 173 |
A total of 232 entries bought into Day 1a and played nine hour-long levels. Just 106 players remain who will return to play for Day 2 on March 31. Recep Aydemir spent the day sharing a table with Ara Melkisetian and constantly dueled with his tablemate. Aydemir finished with 554,500, while Melkisetian also made it through the day with 250,000.
Boris Smuskevicius knocked out David Hu when he hit a full house on the river on his way to bagging up 538,000; Hu reentered and did much better on his second bullet, finishing with 289,500. Jack Sinclair (469,500), Warmup runner-up Koray Korkmaz (407,000), Daniel Rezaei (405,000), and Mikhail Zamyatin (337,500), another Warmup finalist, also enjoyed fruitful days on the felt.
Those who weren’t as lucky to survive the day included Warmup fourth-place finisher Julien Loire, Toni Kaukua, and Merit Poker Western Series Main Event champion Orthodoxos Orthodoxou. They’ll have to try again on a later flight if they want to get their hands on the prestigious Merit Poker trophy.
Day 1b begins tomorrow at 12 p.m. local time, where a crop of new and reentering players will take their shot at making it through to Day 2. PokerNews will be following all the action, so stay tuned tomorrow for another action-filled day here in North Cyprus.
, Gadzhiev bet 30,000 from the small blind and Moein called on the button.
and Gadzhiev fired out another 125,000. Moein quickly called as Gadzhiev turned over 
for the turned flush.
on the table and watched as the pile of chips and the tournament chip lead went over to his immediate left.
and 40,000 in the pot.
for a bluff. Dedelov had 
for trip aces to take the pot right before break.
and was called by Habib on the button and Terence Etim in the big blind.
and Moein slid forward a tower of chips, easily covering his remaining two opponents. Habib called off his last chips, while Etim folded.
, while Habib showed 
and Moein's eights were enough to send Habib to the rail.
flop, but El Hachem connected with the 
fell on the river.
, but Gulseven had 
for a missed straight draw, while Gadzhiev took the pot with 
