Damir Gabdullin Carries Chip Lead Into Onyx Premiere Final Table
The $10,400 event drew 507 entries, built a $4.77 million prize pool and left nine players chasing $1 million.
Damir Gabdullin carried the chip lead into the Onyx High Roller Series $10,400 Premiere final table after a long Day 2 at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. The field went from 76 returnees to nine survivors in about 12 hours, and the winner is set to collect $1 million.
According to PokerNews coverage, the event drew 507 entries across four starting flights and generated a $4,765,800 prize pool. The tournament had a $5 million guarantee, and every player who made Day 2 was already guaranteed a payout.
Day 1c was played with 100,000 starting chips, with 40-minute levels, while the Day 1d turbo used 20-minute levels. Late registration ran until the start of Level 10 after the dinner break, and the flights played down to roughly 15% of the field, which meant every survivor locked up at least a min-cash.
Artsiom Lasouski entered Day 2 as the player to catch with 2,180,000, the only stack above two million after leading Day 1c. Alex Kulev returned on 1,840,000 after leading Day 1b, and Sorel Mizzi came back on 1,720,000 as the Day 1a chip leader.
Gabdullin finished the job by scoring the last knockout of the day. He turned a flush to crack Sinan Unlu’s aces at the bubble. Unlu was later eliminated in 10th for $63,000, setting up the final table.
A cluster of big names missed the final table, including Dietrich Fast, Aren Bezhanyan, Aliaksandr Shylko, Oliver Weis, Artur Martirosian, Boris Kolev, Timur Margolin, Fahredin Mustafov, Mehdi Chaoui and start-of-day big stack Alex Kulev. Mikita Badziakouski made a deep run, taking out Sorel Mizzi in 18th, Andrey Pateychuk in 17th and Danilo Velasevic in 13th before returning with 5,450,000.
Italo Modena returned with 7,400,000, while 'Goofy’ bagged 7,050,000. Giorgiy Skhulukhiya sat on 4,400,000, with Ravid Garbi and Sergio Aido close behind on 3,775,000 and 3,750,000.
The final table is set to start Tuesday, August 11 at 1 p.m. local time on Level 24, with blinds of 80,000/160,000 and a 160,000 big blind ante. Play will use a hands-per-level format instead of a tournament clock, and the table will also be streamed, with the streaming schedule yet to be confirmed but expected shortly after cards go in the air.
