2019 Merit Poker Classic

Day 1a of the $5,300 Main Event here at the Merit Poker Classic has come to an end with 93 entries. Out of those 93 entries, 43 players have made it through to Day 2, Thursday, May 9. Claiming the Day 1a chip lead is Maroun Jazzar with 574,200 in chips.

Trailing Jazzar in the chip counts are Shahar Levi (532,600), Volodymyr Yastreb (455,000) and Christian Rudolph (432,500). Other notable players to have bagged and tagged an above average stack for Day 2 include Joey Weissman (400,800), Pavel Kovalenko (339,900), Bart Lybaert (310,300), Andrey Pateychuk (259,600), Daria Feshchenko (259,100), Albert Daher (257,100), and Boris Kolev with 192,000.

Vicent Bosca, Ioannis Angelou-Konstas, Manig Loeser, Miguel Iglesias, Rainer Kempe, and Mario Mosböck have also made it through this quiet starting day. Unfortunately, not everyone managed to win their hands today as Ali Reza Fatehi, Javier Fernandez, Aleksandr Gofman, and Markus Pohl all failed to win their final all-ins.

Another starting flight will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, May 7 at noon local time with the exact same structure of eight levels of 60 minutes each with a 10-minute break after every two levels. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action as more familiar faces will jump into the Main Event here in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.

The full chip counts and a recap of today are to follow.

The tournament clock has been paused and the dealers have been instructed to deal two more hands before the remaining players can bag and tag their chips for Day 2.

Boris Kolev raised to 5,000 from mid-position, Christian Rudolph called in the hijack. Garik Tamasyan shoved on the button for 22,000 and both Kolev and Rudolph called.

The flop came , Kolev check-folded to the 23,000 bet of Rudolph to let them battle it out.

Garik Tamasyan:
Christian Rudolph:

The turn was the to give Tamasyan two pair.

The river completed the board with the for Tamasyan to stay ahead and double up.

Joey Weissman has just eliminated two other players and was kind enough to relate what had happened:

The under-the-gun player had raised to 4,000 and Weismann called from the cutoff with . Rainer Kempe called in the small blind and so did the player in the big blind.

The flop came , Kempe and the big blind checked, the initial raiser bet 6,500 and only Weissman and the big blind called.

The turn was the to give Weissman the nut-flush. The player in the big blind checked again. The initial raiser shoved and Weissman called. The player in the big blind also shoved and Weissman called again. The big blind player had while the under-the-gun player held for the lower flush and was drawing dead for the straight flush as Weismann had the in his hand already.

Vanush Mnatsakyan raised to 3,600 from under the gun and was called by the player in the cutoff. Aleksandr Gofman three-bet to 18,900 from the small blind which Mnatsakyan called and the cutoff-player folded.

They both checked through the whole board. Gofman tabled but couldn't beat the of Mnatsakyan who had rivered a pair of jacks.

The board read with 57,000 in the middle already.

Markus Pohl checked in the small blind and Bart Lybaert shoved from the big blind with the bigger stack. Pohl contemplated for a while and then flicked in a chip for the call. Lybaert turned over for the rivered flush and Pohl quickly got up from his chair and made his way out of the tournament area without flipping over his hole cards. The dealer showed Pohl held for the flopped top pair.