Alisa Sibgatova Dominates Day 1b of Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event
Day 1b of the 2024 Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 Main Event has come to a close here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. Alisa Sibgatova finished the night with the largest stack across both of the first two starting flights, ending with 661,000. That stack will be worth just over 264 big blinds going into Day 2. She is most closely followed by Aleksandar Tot (559,000) and Mihai Tusnea (487,000). Sibgatova has just over $90,000 in career tournament earnings with her best cash of €23,210 ($26,078) coming from a deep run in the 2019 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Alisa Sibgatova | Russian Federation | 661,000 | 264 |
| 2 | Aleksandar Tot | Montenegro | 559,000 | 224 |
| 3 | Mihai Tusnea | Romania | 487,000 | 195 |
| 4 | Ruslan Bakhtiev | Russian Federation | 454,000 | 182 |
| 5 | Naji Tanuri | Lebanon | 440,500 | 176 |
| 6 | Edgard Raffoul | Lebanon | 438,000 | 175 |
| 7 | Sergey Bortsov | Israel | 429,500 | 172 |
| 8 | Umutcan Ipekoglu | Turkey | 425,000 | 170 |
| 9 | Jenya Gavrilovich | Belarus | 364,500 | 146 |
| 10 | Adrian State | Romania | 358,500 | 143 |
Day 1b Highlights
Day 1b attracted a total of 166 entrants to bring the total field size from the first two starting flights to 351. Of those 166 entrants, 74 players were able to find a bag at the end of the night and advance to Day 2 after nine hour-long levels of play. Despite the deep structure of this event, featuring 60-minute levels and a starting stack worth 200 big blinds, the action was fast and furious from the start. Tot set the pace in the first level of the day after being on the right side of a brutal cooler that saw pocket aces cracked by quad queens. Tot would experience many ups and downs from that point on but would ultimately finish the night with the second-largest stack in the room.
Can Miral found himself among the chip leaders midway through the day after getting the maximum with pocket aces, but his momentum would come to a crashing halt later in the night after Razvan Sabau cracked his set of eights.
Sibgatova was under the radar for most of the day before rapidly accumulating chips in the last two levels. In one of the final hands of the night she would river a full house to crack Sari Haddad's turned straight and by that point she easily had the largest chip stack in the room.
Other notables to advance to Day 2 include Andrey Pateychuk (304,000), Fabio Peluso (146,000), Halil Tasyurek (52,500) and Aylar Lie (32,500). Peluso in particular had a tough start to the day, finding himself short-stacked early on. Later he would make an admirable comeback, doubling up twice in the span of just a few hands to preserve his tournament life and ultimately advance to Day 2.
Notable players from today's Day 1b flight who were not fortunate enough to advance to Day 2 include Giorgiy Skhulukhiya and Dmitry Gromov.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all your live coverage needs for this event until a winner is crowned on March 26.