28 Players Return For Day 3 of Event #13: $5,300 High Roller
Event #13: $5,300 High Roller at the Merit Poker Carmen Series will conclude today as 28 players from an initial field of 187 return for the third and final day. They will all be battling for a portion of the $860,200 prizepool as none have yet locked up a return on their investment. With 23 places getting paid, when the players retake their seats at 2 p.m. local time at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino, soft bubble play will come into effect straight away.
Ryan Mandara of the United Kingdom comes into the day as the chipleader, sitting on 1,950,000. Mandara has total career earnings of $847,570 with his best live cash of $308,953 coming back in 2018 when he triumphed in the Irish Open Main Event. Although he will not be able to surpass that mark today, that will likely not been on his mind were he to win the event for $204,700.
Anton Ionel of Romania sits second in chips with 1,605,000 while Fahredin Mustafov rounds out the top three on 1,500,000.
Merit Poker Merit Series $5,300 High Roller Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Mandara | 1,950,000 | 78 |
| 2 | Anton Ionel | 1,605,000 | 64 |
| 3 | Fahredin Mustafov | 1,500,000 | 60 |
| 4 | Aliaksandr Hirs | 1,490,000 | 60 |
| 5 | Mihai Niste | 1,465,000 | 59 |
| 6 | Stefan Huber | 895,000 | 36 |
| 7 | Lev Kydatov | 855,000 | 34 |
| 8 | Dmitry Gromov | 840,000 | 34 |
| 9 | Egor Romaniuk | 720,000 | 29 |
| 10 | Alexandru Papazian | 715,000 | 29 |
Although the blind levels have been 40-minutes in length throughout the tournament, with play slowing down towards the end of Day 2, the average stack is now quite shallow, sitting below the 30 big blind mark. That should make for a fairly fast pace of play on the final day.
Short stacks coming into the day include Event #2: $2,200 NL Warmup winner Arie Kliper (195,000), Danielle Noja (250,000) and Iacopo Brandi (258,000), each of whom will first face the task of making it into the money before attempting to make a run towards the final table.
Play resumes at the start of Level 21, with blinds at 10,000/25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante. Be sure to stay tuned as the Pokernews live reporting team continues to provide updates through to the conclusion of Event #13: $5,300 High Roller.
flop to take the lead. The 
turn, however, improved Hirs to broadway, rendering the 
river inconsequential as Iskandarov made his way to the exits.
in the hijack and he three-bet to 120,000. The remaining players got out of the way to send the action back to Papazian who tossed his remaining 10,000 into the middle. 
flop brought no help with nothing changing on the 
turn or 
river to send him out of the tournament on the pure bubble. All remaining players have locked up at least $8,100.
to send Noja to the payout desk in 23rd place.
flop did give Yildiz some hope but no further help came on the 
river to send him out in 20th place.
. Lev Kydatov then re-jammed on the button with 
, bringing his deep run to an end in 14th place.
