Main Event
Day 3 Completed
Day 3 Completed
Live Highlights
Kovalenko Takes Chip Lead into the Penultimate Day
After the bubble burst, two more hands were played before the players bagged up for Day 4 tomorrow in the Merit Poker Classic $5,300 Main Event which was also the end of Level 15. The tournament only played five levels as they needed to finish before 8 PM local time. Pavel Kovalenko takes the overnight chip lead with 3,162,000 in his bag.
A lot of Kovalenko’s chips were won when he made the right call against Vlad Darie. Kovalenko had five-bet preflop and was called by Darie. After they both checked through the ten-queen-queen flop, Kovalenko check-called the bet of Darie on the seven on the turn. The river completed the board with a trey and a flush draw. Kovalenko checked again and now Darie put him all-in. Kovalenko tank-called with the pocket kings and saw Darie had ace-high in his hand to take him into the chip lead which he didn’t let go for the rest of the day.
Also bagging big with more than twice the average chip count are Pavel Plesuv with 3,055,000, the Day 1e chip leader Kacper Pyzara (3,000,000), Joey Weissman (2,494,000), Boris Kolev (2,318,000), Jacek Ladny (2,125,000), Andreas Christoforou with 2,000,000. Other notable players making it through to Day 4 include Kenny Hallaert, Manig Loeser, Day 2 chip leader Sergey Baburin, Dragos Trofimov, Andrey Pateychuk, Stoyan Obreshkov, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and Darie too.
The partypoker representatives still have two irons in the fire with Ludovic Geilich and Kristen Bicknell. Geilich tagged 2,147,000 chips at the end of the day but Bicknell only has eleven big blinds to start Day 4 with. Joni Jouhkimainen fell to Elvin Sarkarov when he ran his ace-king into the sevens of Sarkarov. Anatoly Filatov was eliminated by Loeser when he shoved his ace-six from the big blind and was called with ace-seven.
Hand-for-hand play started with around 30 minutes left in Level 15 and 73 players remaining. Vicent Bosca was eliminated before the real bubble would start. Bosca called a raise of Ashkan Fattahi but Weissman three-bet in the small blind. Fattahi got out of the way but Bosco shoved which Weissman snap-called with ace-king. Bosca held pocket jacks and flopped a set but Weissman picked up a straight draw and hit it on the turn to eliminate him.
![Selahaddin Bedir (right) eliminates [Removed:61] (left) on the bubble](https://pnimg.net/w/lr-attachments/1/5cd/5b9742b939.jpg)
During the bubble, four different players managed to double up but it finally burst when [Removed:61] shoved his last 27,000 from the cutoff and was called by the players in the blinds. In the end, it was Selahaddin Bedit who burst the bubble as he held four-trey on the trey-king-jack-trey-four board to make a full house while Youness had queen-jack.
Jeff Hakim, Mikhail Galitskiy, Saar Wilf, Day 1d chip leader Shaul Meir, and Igor Ovcharenko all min-cashed during the final two hands of the night while the rest all bagged up to play Level 16 tomorrow, Saturday, May 11, at noon local time with another six levels of 75 minutes each scheduled.
The full chip counts and seat draw for Day 4 will be posted as soon as the PokerNews live reporting team receives them from the organization. Make sure to return at noon to follow all the action from the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino as the tournament’s penultimate day will be played here in sunny Cyprus.
Day 4 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | John Four | Lithuania | 554,000 | 22 |
| 1 | 2 | Orhan Ates | Turkey | 1,275,000 | 51 |
| 1 | 3 | Albert Daher | Lebanon | 478,000 | 19 |
| 1 | 4 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russia | 767,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 5 | Oliver Ruesing | Germany | 94,000 | 4 |
| 1 | 6 | Mustafa Biz | Turkey | 1,586,000 | 63 |
| 1 | 7 | Garik Tamasyan | Russia | 1,322,000 | 53 |
| 1 | 8 | Elie Farah | Lebanon | 271,000 | 11 |
| 1 | 9 | Aleksandras Voisnis | Lithuania | 280,000 | 11 |
| 2 | 1 | Daniel Braude | Israel | 1,079,000 | 43 |
| 2 | 2 | Mehmet Kolgu | Turkey | 136,000 | 5 |
| 2 | 3 | Pavel Yakobson | Russia | 1,313,000 | 53 |
| 2 | 4 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 1,044,000 | 42 |
| 2 | 5 | Assad Ramin | Afghanistan | 791,000 | 32 |
| 2 | 6 | Moshe Refaelowitz | Israel | 345,000 | 14 |
| 2 | 7 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | 270,000 | 11 |
| 2 | 8 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | 1,765,000 | 71 |
| 2 | 9 | Sergey Baburin | Russia | 982,000 | 39 |
| 3 | 1 | Daniil Kiselev | Russia | 449,000 | 18 |
| 3 | 2 | Joey Weissman | United States | 2,494,000 | 100 |
| 3 | 3 | Hasan Dogan | Turkey | 741,000 | 30 |
| 3 | 4 | Nikita Kalinin | Russia | 258,000 | 10 |
| 3 | 5 | Tobias Duthweiler | Germany | 544,000 | 22 |
| 3 | 6 | Anton Morgenstern | Germany | 1,200,000 | 48 |
| 3 | 7 | Ulan Dzholdoshbekov | Russia | 759,000 | 30 |
| 3 | 8 | Jacek Ladny | Poland | 2,125,000 | 85 |
| 4 | 1 | John Three | Israel | 979,000 | 39 |
| 4 | 2 | Aleksandr Kopasov | Russia | 846,000 | 34 |
| 4 | 3 | Joep Raemaekers | Netherlands | 628,000 | 25 |
| 4 | 4 | Pavel Plesuv | Moldova | 3,055,000 | 122 |
| 4 | 5 | John Two | Netherlands | 747,000 | 30 |
| 4 | 6 | Edgard Raffoul | Lebanon | 202,000 | 8 |
| 4 | 7 | Uri Reichenstein | Israel | 1,800,000 | 72 |
| 4 | 8 | Ludovic Geilich | Germany | 2,147,000 | 86 |
| 5 | 1 | Anatoly Suvorov | Russia | 350,000 | 14 |
| 5 | 2 | Dragos Trofimov | Moldova | 887,000 | 35 |
| 5 | 3 | Kacper Pyzara | Poland | 3,000,000 | 120 |
| 5 | 4 | Lachezar Petkov | Slovenia | 303,000 | 12 |
| 5 | 5 | Basem Abudavas | Kuwait | 778,000 | 31 |
| 5 | 6 | Arnas Dzedulionis | Lithuania | 646,000 | 26 |
| 5 | 7 | Ben Farrell | United Kingdom | 463,000 | 19 |
| 5 | 8 | Karwan Hasan | Iraq | 1,381,000 | 55 |
| 6 | 1 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russia | 592,000 | 24 |
| 6 | 2 | Boris Kolev | Bulgaria | 2,318,000 | 93 |
| 6 | 3 | Hadi Khordbin | Iran | 90,000 | 4 |
| 6 | 4 | Christian Bauer | Germany | 233,000 | 9 |
| 6 | 5 | Selahaddin Bedir | Turkey | 2,383,000 | 95 |
| 6 | 6 | Ashkan Fattahi | Iran | 1,000,000 | 40 |
| 6 | 7 | Vlad Darie | Romania | 460,000 | 18 |
| 6 | 8 | Florian Duta | Romania | 516,000 | 21 |
| 7 | 1 | Andreas Christoforou | Cyprus | 2,000,000 | 80 |
| 7 | 2 | Hady El Asmar | Lebanon | 300,000 | 12 |
| 7 | 3 | Andrei Razov | Russia | 579,000 | 23 |
| 7 | 4 | Bassel Alanaz | Lebanon | 1,378,000 | 55 |
| 7 | 5 | Ugur Secilmis | Turkey | 265,000 | 11 |
| 7 | 6 | Stoyan Obreshkov | Bulgaria | 724,000 | 29 |
| 7 | 7 | Basil Yaiche | France | 746,000 | 30 |
| 7 | 8 | Timur Khamidullin | Russia | 357,000 | 14 |
| 8 | 1 | Nariman Yaghmai | Iran | 722,000 | 29 |
| 8 | 2 | Aleksei Istomin | Russia | 224,000 | 9 |
| 8 | 3 | Elvin Sarkarov | Azerbaijan | 2,793,000 | 112 |
| 8 | 4 | Dori Yacoub | Lebanon | 810,000 | 32 |
| 8 | 5 | Shahar Levi | Israel | 1,437,000 | 57 |
| 8 | 6 | Pavel Kovalenko | Russia | 3,162,000 | 126 |
| 8 | 7 | Milad Oghabian | Iran | 364,000 | 15 |
| 8 | 8 | Tarek Yassine | Lebanon | 550,000 | 22 |
End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)
The full chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.
|
|
3,162,000 | 387,000 | ||
|
|
3,055,000 | 955,000 | ||
|
|
3,000,000 | -170,000 | ||
|
|
2,793,000 | 558,000 | ||
|
|
2,494,000 | 494,000 | ||
|
|
2,383,000 | 53,000 | ||
|
|
2,318,000 | 1,418,000 | ||
|
|
2,147,000 | 707,000 | ||
|
|
2,125,000 | 1,798,000 | ||
|
|
2,000,000 | 350,000 | ||
|
|
1,800,000 | 1,293,500 | ||
|
|
1,765,000 | 745,000 | ||
|
|
1,586,000 | 1,018,000 | ||
|
|
|
1,437,000 | 137,000 | ||
|
|
1,381,000 | -379,000 | ||
|
|
1,378,000 | -47,000 | ||
|
|
1,322,000 | 354,000 | ||
|
|
|
1,313,000 | 613,000 | ||
|
|
1,275,000 | 1,021,500 | ||
|
|
1,200,000 | 109,000 | ||
|
|
1,079,000 | 806,000 | ||
|
|
1,044,000 | 74,000 | ||
|
|
1,000,000 | |||
|
|
982,000 | -368,000 | ||
|
|
|
979,000 | -161,000 |
Eliminated for $9,270
|
|
Busted | |||
|
|
Busted | |||
|
|
Busted | |||
|
|
Busted | |||
|
|
Busted |
Bedir Bursts the Bubble by Busting Youness
[Removed:61] shoved from the cutoff for 27,000 and was called by Selahaddin Bedir and the player in the big blind.
The flop came 
on which both players checked.
The turn was the 
and now Bedir bet 65,000 and the big blind folded.
Bedir and Youness had to wait till all action was completed on the other tables before they could go to showdown.
[Removed:61]: 
Selahaddin Bedir: 
Bedir had turned trip treys and Youness had flopped a pair of jacks. Only another jack could save Youness but he bricked the river as the 
completed the board to burst the bubble.
The tournament director then announced that they needed to play two more hands before they would be bagging up for Day 4 tomorrow, Saturday, May 11 at noon.
|
|
|
2,330,000 | 1,824,000 | ||
|
|
|
Busted |
Dzholdoshbekov Shoves on Meir
Ulan Dzholdoshbekov raised to 57,000 from mid-position and was called by Shaul Meir in the cutoff.
The flop came 
, Dzholdoshbekov continued with a bet of 100,000 which Meir called.
The turn was the and now Dzholdoshbekov shoved for 450,000 which covered Meir's stack but Meir still asked for a count. Meir dived into the tank for a while and in the end, the tournament director warned Meir that he would get put on the clock. The floor started counting down and when he reached two, Meir opted to fold.
|
|
814,000 | 220,000 | ||
|
|
|
245,000 | -1,255,000 |
Secilmis Doubles On the Bubble Too
Ugur Secilmis shoved from the button for 95,000 and was called by Kacper Pyzara.
Ugur Secilmis: 
Kacper Pyzara: 
The board ran out 
for Secilmis' pocket rockets to hold and double him up.
|
|
|
3,170,000 | -385,000 | ||
|
|
240,000 | 19,000 |
Biz Doubles Up
Uri Reichenstein raised to 40,000 from mid-position and was called by John Two in the small blind. Mustafa Biz shoved from the big blind for 254,000 and only Two called.
Mustafa Biz:
John Two: 
The flop came 
for Two to hit a pair of jacks but keep Biz ahead.
The turn was the 
to now also give Two some extra outs to burst the bubble.
The river completed the board with the 
for Biz to double on the bubble.
|
|
1,720,000 | 20,000 | ||
|
|
|
568,000 | -277,000 |
Kalinin Doubles on the Bubble
Nikita Kalinin shoved for 144,000 from the small blind and was called by Ludovic Geilich in the big blind.
Nikita Kalinin: 
Ludovic Geilich:
The board ran out 
for Kalinin to hit a straight to stay alive and double up,
|
|
|
1,440,000 | -465,000 | ||
|
|
308,000 | 4,000 |