M'Hiri Holds Heaps After Day 1b of the Merit Main Event
Day 1b Merit Poker Western Series $3,300 Main Event has reached its end as it saw about 158 entries play down to around 95 players in nine levels of play here at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino.
Ending the night as one of the largest stacks was Chakib M'Hiri of Tunisia who finished with 627,000. His big stack was made aware of in the later part of the day and he would build from there, at one point having well over 700,000 before losing a flip to a shorter stack in one of the final few hands but still emerging as the likely largest stack.
Just behind him at the end of play was Aleksandar Jakovljevic of Romania (607,000) who held a big stack for much of the day.
Fresh off of a third-place finish in The Warm-Up event, Paul Browne continued that momentum with a great start to the day as he more than doubled his stack within the first level. He would continue to build as the night wore on and ended the night with 528,000.
Top 10 Chip Counts Day 1b
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chakib M'Hiri | Tunisia | 627,000 |
| 2 | Alexander Jakovljevic | Romania | 607,000 |
| 3 | Paul Browne | United Kingdom | 528,000 |
| 4 | Anatloiy Shetyn | Russia | 515,000 |
| 5 | Michel Atallah | Lebanon | 440,000 |
| 6 | Valeriy Pak | Belarus | 438,500 |
| 7 | Idin Sedghinasab | United States | 424,000 |
| 8 | Denis Matafonov | Russia | 419,000 |
| 9 | Naji Abdo | Lebanon | 380,000 |
| 10 | Fadi El-Hany | Lebanon | 367,000 |
Several faces familiar to the North Cyprus poker scene were able to bag decent stacks and advance on to Day 2. They include; Belarusian Valeriy Pak (438,500), Gabi Livshitz (338,500) and his compatriot Uri Reichenstein (252,000).
About 60% of the players advanced to Day 2 where they will return to action on Monday January 23rd at 12 p.m. noon local time. They will join the 109 survivors of Day 1a and the ones who survive Days 1c and 1d tomorrow.
PokerNews will continue coverage of the Main Event tomorrow at 12 noon.