Merit Poker Cup Reaches the Stone Bubble With Kardash in Command
The $3,500 event drew 428 entries and built a $1.26 million prize pool before play reached the stone bubble with 64 players remaining.
The $3,500 Merit Poker Cup hit the stone bubble with 64 players left, and Vyacheslav Kardash ended the penultimate day with 2,090,000 chips.
According to PokerNews, the action was at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus. The day began with 129 players from three opening flights, and another 125 entries came in before late registration closed five levels into the day, bringing the field to 428.
That field built a $1,260,032 prize pool, comfortably above the $1 million guarantee. Only 63 players will cash.
Ali Al-Kubasi sat second on 2,050,000 and Stefan-Sebastian Ionita was third on 2,035,000. Kardash was one of only three players to clear 2 million, with Ohad Geiger next on 1,555,000, then Dmitry Gromov on 960,000 and Adrian State on 950,000.
The rest of the top ten included Xiaosheng Zheng on 605,000, Simone Andrian on 575,000 and Felipe Ketzer on 465,000. Shyngis Satubayev busted despite making a royal flush earlier in the day, Joris Ruijs and start-of-day leader Hassan Nashar also fell, and Damir Zhugralin was sent out when a Q♦ river counterfeited his two pair in a hand where Ali Al-Kubasi held A♥ K♣.
The 64 returnees restart on Friday, July 31 at noon local time on Level 22 with blinds of 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante. The winner will take $240,000 and the tournament trophy.
