2019 Merit Poker Classic

Live Highlights

Andreas Christoforou Wins the 2019 Merit Poker Classic Main Event for $565,157

Liran Twito Eliminated in 2nd Place ($416,245)

Twito Doubles Again to Take Chip Lead

Kristen Bicknell Eliminated in 3rd Place ($254,770)

Christoforou Doubles Through Twito

Daniel Braude Eliminated in 4th Place ($188,685)

Basil Yaiche Eliminated in 5th Place ($141,440)

Ludovic Geilich Eliminated in 6th Place ($113,330)

Selahaddin Bedir Eliminated in 7th Place ($94,490)

Anton Morgenstern Eliminated in 8th Place ($75,355)

Yaiche Doubles Through Geilich

Braude Doubles Christoforou Up

Mustafa Biz Eliminated in 9th Place ($56,515)

Florian Duta Eliminated in 10th Place ($41,565)

Bicknell Closing in on Ten Million

Ulan Dzholdoshbekov Eliminated in 11th Place ($41,565)

Dori Yacoub Eliminated in 12th Place ($41,565)

Hasan Dogan Eliminated in 13th place ($33,790)

Anatoly Suvorov Eliminated in 14th Place ($33,790)

Pavel Kovalenko Eliminated in 15th Place ($33,790)

Main Event
Day 2 Completed

Baburin at the Top After Day 2; Christoforou, Levi, Plesuv, and Meir All Bag More Than a Million

Posted 05-09-2019 23:04 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

After a tumultuous six levels of 75 minutes, Day 2 of the Merit Poker Classic $5,300 Main Event has come to an end with 149 players bagging their chips for Day 3, Friday, May 10. Claiming the Day 2 chip lead is Sergey Baburin with 1,573,000 in chips.

But he’s not the only player to have put more than a million chips in their bag, an anonymous player called “John Two” takes second place in the chip counts with 1,299,000, followed by Andreas Christoforou (1,175,000), Shahar Levi (1,134,000), Pavel Plesuv (1,065,000), and the Day 1d chip leader Shaul Meir with 1,006,000.

The day started with 249 players out of 508 entries taking their seats. Over the first four levels, another 141 extra entries were accumulated to take the total number of entries up to 649, creating a prize pool of $2,990,627. This means 71 players will be in the money for at least $9,720 with the winner walking away with the first-place prize of $565,157 and bragging rights.

Other notable players making it through to Day 3 with an above average stack include Vlad Darie, Florian Duta, Dragos Trofimov, Pavel Kovalenko, Ben Farrell, Boris Kolev, Demosthenes Kiriopoulos, Fahredin Mustafov, Manig Loeser, and the Day 1b and 1e chip leaders Alexandru Papazian and Kacper Pyzara.

The partypoker representatives probably have mixed feelings about today. Ludovic Geilich busted earlier in the day when he shoved his pair of sixes on the eight-nine-trey flop and was called by Christoforou who held ace-queen. The queen on the turn meant Geilich had to reenter but he managed to end the day with 399,000. Kristen Bicknell went up and down the chip counts throughout the day but finished with 317,000.

Joni Jouhkimainen bagged 192,000 which is still worth 24 big blinds by the start of the day. Anatoly Filatov tossed 90,000 in his bag at the end of the day and has got some work to do on Day 3. Dzmitry Urbanovich and Josip Simunic were less lucky and failed to win their final all-ins.

Other familiar faces who failed to find a bag at the end of the day include Eyal Eshkar, Matthias De Meulder, Daria Feshchenko, Ali Reza Fatehi, Duff Charette, Aleksandr Gofman, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Rainer Kempe, Mario Mosböck[/b], and Bart Lybaert.

Day 3 will start at noon local time, Friday, May 10 with Level 15 which features a small blind of 4,000, big blind of 8,000, and a big blind ante of 8,000. Six levels of 75 minutes each are scheduled again with a 10-minute break after every two levels. The full chip counts and a seat draw for Day 3 will be posted by the PokerNews live reporting team once they have been received from the organization. Make sure to check back for all the updates from the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.

2019 Merit Poker Classic $5,300 Main Event Schedule

Day	Date	Starting Time	Late Reg	Entries	Survivors	Further Information
1a	Monday May 6th	12:00	Thursday May 9, ~19:00	93	43	Play 8 Levels of 60 minutes
1b	Tuesday May 7th	12:00	Thursday May 9, ~19:00	161	80	Play 8 Levels of 60 minutes
1c	Wednesday May 8th	12:00	Thursday May 9, ~19:00	202	96	Play 8 Levels of 60 minutes
1d	Wednesday May 8th	21:30	Thursday May 9, ~19:00	35	19	Play 8 Levels of 30 minutes
1e	Thursday May 9th	10:00	Thursday May 9, ~19:00	17	11	Play 8 Levels of 20 minutes
2	Thursday May 9th	13:30	Thursday May 9, ~19:00	508	249	Play 6 Levels of 75 minutes
3	Friday May 10th	12:00	Closed	649	149	Play 6 Levels of 75 minutes
4	Saturday May 11th	12:00	Closed	-	-	TBD
5	Sunday May 12th	12:00	Closed	-	-	Play down to a winner

Tags: Aleksandr Gofman Alexandru Papazian Ali Reza Fatehi Anatoly Filatov Andreas Christoforou Bart Lybaert Ben Farrell Boris Kolev Daria Feshchenko Demosthenes Kiriopoulos Dragos Trofimov Duff Charette Dzmitry Urbanovich Eyal Eshkar Fahredin Mustafov Florian Duta Igor Yaroshevskyy Joni Jouhkimainen Josip Simunic Kacper Pyzara Kristen Bicknell Ludovic Geilich Manig Loeser Mario Mosböck Matthias De Meulder Pavel Kovalenko Pavel Plesuv Rainer Kempe Sergey Baburin Shahar Levi Shaul Meir Vlad Darie

Day 3 Seat Draw

Posted 05-09-2019 22:59 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	1	Vytautas Milbutas	Lithuania	287,000	36
1	2	Fahredin Mustafov	Bulgaria	580,000	73
1	3	Mustafa Biz	Turkey	845,000	106
1	4	Kristen Bicknell	United Kingdom	317,000	40
1	5	Han Yong Kuo	Germany	164,000	21
1	6	Uri Reichenstein	Israel	506,500	63
1	7	Elvin Sarkarov	Azerbaijan	756,000	95
1	8	Joni Jouhkimainen	Finland	192,000	24
1	9	Maroun Jazzar	Lebanon	305,500	38

2	1	Shahar Levi	Israel	1,134,500	142
2	2	Abdelhakim Zoufri	Netherlands	164,000	21
2	3	Vlada Stojanovic	Serbia	668,000	84
2	4	Andrei Razov	Russia	417,500	52
2	5	Pavel Kovalenko	Russia	761,000	95
2	6	Vlad Darie	Romania	940,000	118
2	7	Miguel Iglesias	Spain	92,000	12
2	8	Nejat Erman	Turkey	265,000	33
2	9	Nikita Bochkin	Russia	500,000	63

3	1	Ran Azor	Israel	706,500	88
3	2	Alexander Lakhov	Russia	129,500	16
3	3	Aleksandras Voisnis	Lithuania	727,500	91
3	4	Pavel Plesuv	Moldova	1,066,500	133
3	5	Denys Chufarin	Ukraine	758,500	95
3	6	Slaven Popov	Bulgaria	161,000	20
3	7	Assad Ramin	Afghanistan	265,000	33
3	8	Sergey Fedyaev	Russia	292,000	37
3	9	Arnas Dzedulionis	Lithuania	547,000	68

4	1	Andreas Christoforou	Cyprus	1,175,000	147
4	2	Dori Yacoub	Lebanon	344,000	43
4	3	Georgios Sotiropoulos	Cyprus	404,000	51
4	4	Mikhail Galitskiy	Russia	321,000	40
4	5	Vladimir Komissarov	Russia	145,000	18
4	6	Aristeidis Moschonas	Greece	99,000	12
4	7	Alain Zeidan	Lebanon	560,000	70
4	8	Oliver Ruesing	Germany	473,500	59
4	9	Andrey Pateychuk	Russia	308,500	39

5	1	Elie Farah	Lebanon	759,500	95
5	2	Orhan Ates	Turkey	253,500	32
5	3	Ashkan Fattahi	Iran	586,500	73
5	4	Golam Lakkhosravi	Iran	900,000	113
5	5	Dimitrios Farmakoulis	Greece	577,000	72
5	6	Edgard Raffoul	Lebanon	266,000	33
5	7	Przemyslaw Piotrowski	Poland	205,000	26
5	8	Joey Weissman	United States	237,500	30
5	9	Ben Farrell	United Kingdom	716,000	90

6	1	James Romero	United States	580,000	73
6	2	John Six	Romania	778,500	97
6	3	Nikolay Fal	Russia	240,000	30
6	4	Shaul Meir	Israel	1,006,000	126
6	5	Boris Kolev	Bulgaria	688,000	86
6	6	Timur Khamidullin	Russia	560,000	70
6	7	Aleksandr Kopasov	Russia	283,000	35
6	8	Hasan Dogan	Turkey	245,500	31
6	9	Maxim Lykov	Russia	160,000	20

7	1	Arnaud Enselme	France	385,500	48
7	2	Daniil Kiselev	Russia	749,500	94
7	3	Kenny Hallaert	Belgium	116,500	15
7	4	Andrey Kaygorodtsev	Russia	234,000	29
7	5	Charbel Salloum	Lebanon	792,000	99
7	6	Hadi Khordbin	Iran	456,500	57
7	7	[Removed:61]	United States	896,500	112
7	8	Kacper Pyzara	Poland	549,500	69
7	9	Denis Timofeev	Russia	440,000	55

8	1	Mehmet Kolgu	Turkey	854,500	107
8	2	Omer Cubukcu	Turkey	232,500	29
8	3	Aneris Adomkevicius	Lithuania	151,000	19
8	4	Nikita Kalinin	Russia	369,500	46
8	5	Joseph Sabe	Lebanon	345,000	43
8	6	Daniel Braude	Israel	273,000	34
8	7	Florian Duta	Romania	866,000	108
8	8	Ray Sumon	Iran	287,000	36
8	9	Georges Hanna	Lebanon	264,000	33

9	1	Maksim Bukreev	Russia	212,500	27
9	2	Hady El Asmar	Lebanon	485,000	61
9	3	Ran Ilani	Israel	203,000	25
9	4	Joseph Succar	Lebanon	190,000	24
9	5	Basil Yaiche	France	619,000	77
9	6	Garik Tamasyan	Russia	480,500	60
9	7	Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy	Russia	426,000	53
9	8	John Three	Israel	889,000	111
9	9	Ulan Dzholdoshbekov	Russia	594,000	74

10	1	Freek Scholten	Denmark	627,000	78
10	2	Muhtar Taysi	Turkey	153,000	19
10	3	Christian Rudolph	Germany	236,000	30
10	4	Jacek Ladny	Poland	327,000	41
10	5	Selahaddin Bedir	Turkey	506,000	63
10	6	Demosthenes Kiriopoulos	Greece	601,000	75
10	7	Vicent Bosca	Spain	209,000	26
10	8	Algirdas Saveikis	Lithuania	154,000	19
10	9	Stephen Woodhead	Ireland	293,000	37

11	1	Anatoly Suvorov	Russia	700,000	88
11	2	Tobias Duthweiler	Germany	412,500	52
11	3	Sergey Baburin	Russia	1,573,000	197
11	4	Steven van Zadelhoff	Netherlands	92,500	12
11	5	Maria Lampropulos	United Kingdom	184,000	23
11	6	Vanush Mnatsakyan	Russia	549,000	69
11	7	Milad Oghabian	Iran	248,500	31
11	8	Tarek Yassine	Lebanon	276,500	35
11	9	Dmitry Gromov	Russia	523,500	65

12	1	Saar Wilf	Israel	369,000	46
12	2	Stoyan Obreshkov	Bulgaria	172,000	22
12	3	Jahanpour Amirsoleimani	Iran	289,000	36
12	4	Giorgii Skhulukhiya	Russia	167,000	21
12	5	Ramzi Karam	Lebanon	97,500	12
12	6	Bassel Alanaz	Lebanon	577,000	72
12	7	Paul Newey	United Kingdom	498,000	62
12	8	Dimitar Danchev	Bulgaria	161,000	20
12	9	Igor Ovcharenko	Russia	336,000	42

13	1	Moshe Refaelowitz	Israel	285,000	36
13	2	Basem Abudavas	Kuwait	306,000	38
13	3	Santtu Leinonen	Finland	307,000	38
13	4	John Two	Netherlands	1,299,000	162
13	5	Anton Morgenstern	Germany	360,000	45
13	6	Naji Tanuri	Lebanon	344,000	43
13	7	Jeff Hakim	Lebanon	516,500	65
13	8	Lachezar Petkov	Slovenia	212,000	27
13	9	Aleksandar Trajkovski	Macedonia	94,000	12

14	1	Albert Daher	Lebanon	432,500	54
14	2	Etiennne Fortin	France	176,000	22
14	3	Dragos Trofimov	Moldova	814,000	102
14	4	Ryan Riess	United States	369,000	46
14	5	Ori Miler	Israel	108,000	14
14	6	Igor Devkin	Russia	144,500	18
14	7	Andrei Boghean	Romania	527,000	66
14	8	Markus Prinz	Germany	350,000	44

15	1	Nariman Yaghmai	Iran	706,500	88
15	2	Qushqar Morad	Afghanistan	285,000	36
15	3	Imad Saab	Lebanon	393,000	49
15	4	Ugur Secilmis	Turkey	221,000	28
15	5	Levan Karamanishvili	Georgia	327,000	41
15	6	Bartlomiej Machon	United Kingdom	139,000	17
15	7	Haghgou Seyedahmad	Iran	64,500	8
15	8	Vladimir Troyanovskiy	Russia	490,500	61

16	1	Manig Loeser	Germany	574,000	72
16	2	Fady Kamar	Lebanon	419,500	52
16	3	Amir Touma	Lebanon	310,000	39
16	4	Kiryl Radzivonau	Belarus	450,000	56
16	5	John Five	Lebanon	137,000	17
16	6	Karwan Hasan	Iraq	992,000	124
16	7	Anatoly Filatov	Russia	93,000	12
16	8	Nethanel Klein	Israel	161,500	20

17	1	Ahmed Abdella	United Arab Emirates	346,000	43
17	2	Ludovic Geilich	Germany	399,000	50
17	3	Aleksei Istomin	Russia	67,000	8
17	4	Christian Bauer	Germany	774,000	97
17	5	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	561,000	70
17	6	John Four	Lithuania	532,000	67
17	7	Joep Raemaekers	Netherlands Antillies	165,000	21
17	8	Pavel Yakobson	Russia	413,500	52

End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)

Posted 05-09-2019 21:50 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

The full chip counts and a recap of today are to follow with the seat draw for Day 3 once it has been received by the organization.

Sergey Baburin	1,573,000	-69,000
John Two	1,299,000	1,012,200
Andreas Christoforou	1,175,000	-25,000
Shahar Levi	1,134,500	435,000
Pavel Plesuv	1,066,500	66,500
Shaul Meir	1,006,000	116,000
Karwan Hasan	992,000	500,600
Vlad Darie	940,000	290,000
Golam Lakkhosravi	900,000	852,300
[Removed:61]	896,500	278,800
John Three	889,000	625,100
Florian Duta	866,000	26,000
Mehmet Kolgu	854,500	466,100
Mustafa Biz	845,000	689,000
Dragos Trofimov	814,000	29,000
Charbel Salloum	792,000	360,400
John Six	778,500	437,200
Christian Bauer	774,000	-131,000
Pavel Kovalenko	761,000	-19,000
Elie Farah	759,500	623,300
Denys Chufarin	758,500	491,100
Elvin Sarkarov	756,000	496,300
Daniil Kiselev	749,500	644,100
Aleksandras Voisnis	727,500	526,700
Ben Farrell	716,000	216,000

Read full

Two More Hands

Posted 05-09-2019 21:24 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

The tournament clock has been paused and two more hands need to be played before the day ends for today.

Even More Chip Counts

Posted 05-09-2019 21:22 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

Andreas Christoforou	1,200,000	100,000
Pavel Plesuv	1,000,000	363,000
Florian Duta	840,000	660,000
Nariman Yaghmai	730,000	41,000
Andrei Boghean	672,000	372,000
Vlada Stojanovic	672,000	227,000
Oliver Ruesing	580,000	80,000
Uri Reichenstein	510,000	10,000
Vladimir Troyanovskiy	470,000	248,000
Garik Tamasyan	447,000	-173,000
Markus Prinz	429,000	174,000
Ahmed Abdella	330,000	164,700
Joep Raemaekers	231,000	91,000
Lachezar Petkov	210,000	-15,000
Abdelhakim Zoufri	179,000	-321,000
Stoyan Obreshkov	178,000	-24,000
David Boyaciyan	170,000	-30,000
Ran Ilani	163,000	63,000
Aristeidis Moschonas	127,000	-72,000
Steven van Zadelhoff	78,000	-92,000

Latest Chip Counts

Posted 05-09-2019 21:03 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

Christian Bauer	905,000	673,600
Shaul Meir	890,000	267,200
Pavel Kovalenko	780,000	494,000
Manig Loeser	722,000	347,000
John Seven	720,000	-104,000
Vlad Darie	650,000	170,000
Paul Newey	570,000	54,000
Georgios Sotiropoulos	530,000	-70,000
Denis Timofeev	520,000	-115,000
Miguel Iglesias	455,000	-15,000
Ryan Riess	446,000	186,000
Kristen Bicknell partypoker pro	277,000	-33,000
Milad Oghabian	255,000	-48,000
Maxim Lykov	250,000
Aneris Adomkevicius	160,000	116,900
Alexander Lakhov	125,000	-158,000
Christian Rudolph	125,000	-307,500
Bartlomiej Machon	120,000	-170,000
Ludovic Geilich partypoker pro	112,000	112,000
Kenny Hallaert	70,000	-78,000
Mario Mosböck	Busted
Rainer Kempe	Busted
Bart Lybaert	Busted
Michael Sklenicka	Busted

Urbanovich Eliminated by Kolev

Posted 05-09-2019 20:58 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy raised to 14,000 from the early position. The player in the hijack called and Boris Kolev three-bet to 65,000 from the cutoff. Dzmitry Urbanovich called for his last 48,500 from the button. Merzhvinskiy considered it for a while but folded, so did the player in the hijack.

Dzmitry Urbanovich:
Boris Kolev:

The board ran out for the partypoker pro to not get any help of the board as he was sent to the rail.

Sergey Baburin	1,642,000	1,125,000
Boris Kolev	700,000	500,000
Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy	490,000	-36,000
Dzmitry Urbanovich partypoker pro	Busted

Tags: Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy Boris Kolev Dzmitry Urbanovich

Latest Selection of Chip Counts

Posted 05-09-2019 20:39 UTC+3 poolshir • Level 14: 3,000-6,000, 6,000 ante

Fahredin Mustafov	975,000	75,000
Dragos Trofimov	785,000	360,000
Alexandru Papazian	700,000	107,000
Garik Tamasyan	620,000	208,000
Albert Daher	590,000	-35,000
James Romero	580,000	186,000
Uri Reichenstein	500,000	-230,000
Ben Farrell	500,000	31,000
Andrey Pateychuk	400,000	70,000
Bassel Alanaz	380,000	-36,500
Demosthenes Kiriopoulos	350,000	220,000
Maria Lampropulos	336,000	261,000
Jeff Hakim	315,000	-112,000
Anton Morgenstern	300,000	-30,000
Anatoly Filatov	286,000	-5,000
Fady Kamar	220,000	44,400
Ioannis Angelou-Konstas	150,000	50,000
Josip Simunic partypoker Team Online	Busted