Action has come to a close on Day 1a of the 2023 Merit Poker Gangster Series $2,200 Warm Up at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. Mustafa Sancak finished the night at the top of the counts, bagging an impressive 592,500 chips worth just over 197 big blinds going into Day 2.
Day 1a attracted a total of 107 entrants, with 45 players making it to Day 2. Sancak emerged as one of the chip leaders midway through the day and was able to consistently leverage his stack to apply pressure to his opponents and take down many pots without having to go to showdown.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mustafa Sancak | Turkey | 592,500 | 198 |
| 2 | Inas Eldeghedy | Egypt | 491,000 | 164 |
| 3 | Christos Christou | Cyprus | 433,000 | 144 |
| 4 | Halil Tasyurek | Turkey | 418,500 | 140 |
| 5 | Abdelmajid Chiboub | France | 377,500 | 126 |
| 6 | Hadi Khordbin | Iran | 365,500 | 122 |
| 7 | Semih Aras | Cyprus | 365,000 | 122 |
| 8 | Shuang Luo | China | 361,000 | 120 |
| 9 | Gorkem Gedikoglu | Turkey | 352,000 | 117 |
| 10 | Karim Abdelhamid | Canada | 347,000 | 116 |
Sancak is closely followed by Egyptian film director Inas Eldeghedy (491,000), Christos Christou (433,000) and Halil Tasyurek (418,500). Tasyurek is currently enjoying a stellar year in poker, having recently finished fourth at the 2023 European Poker Tour Cyprus Main Event for a career-best score of $358,075.
Tasyurek surged up the counts midway through the day after flopping a flush to crack Azamat Tulepbergenov's pocket kings. Tasyurek never looked back from that point and continued to make good reads on his opponents throughout the day, including one notable hand where he correctly called with king-high on the river after his opponent's low pocket pair had been counterfeited.
Other notables to survive the eight 60-minute levels include Shuang Luo (361,000), Ankit Ahuja (324,000), Victor Yugay (147,000) as well as Merit Poker regulars Selahaddin Bedir (190,000), Koray Korkmaz (168,000) and Aleksandr Pak (135,000). Yugay also made the final table of the 2023 EPT Cyprus Main Event, finishing in eighth place for $125,350.
Others who entered Day 1a but weren't fortunate enough to find a bag include Guoliang Wei, Frederico Senno and Parahat Nurmuhammedov, the latter of which enjoyed the chip lead during the early levels of the day.
Three starting flights remain for this event. Day 1b takes place at noon local time tomorrow, November 23rd, while Day 1c takes place at 9:30 p.m. local time the same day. There will be a turbo Day 1d flight on November 24 before the survivors from each starting flight combine later that day. Late registration and unlimited re-entries will remain available until Level 12, which will be midway through Day 2 on November 24.
Stay tuned for more coverage as PokerNews brings you all the action from the remainder of the festival along the shores of the Mediterranean in North Cyprus.
