partypoker Pro Geilich Leads as 16 Remain in Merit Poker Classic
The penultimate day of the Merit Poker Classic $5,300 Main Event has come to an end after six levels of 75 minutes have been played and sixteen players have found a bag to tag. partypoker pro Ludovic Geilich claimed the Day 4 chip lead when he bagged 8,080,000 in chips.
The Scottish player scored a huge double-up when he found pocket kings and five-bet shoved for over 4 million and was called by Basil Yaiche who had pocket queens. Geilich is followed by Israel's Liran Twito who claimed oodles of bust-outs to his name including Pavel Plesuv and Kacper Pyzara. Rounding out the podium is Shahar Levi (7,255,000), who also hails from Israel. After going up and down the chip counts throughout the day, he found a double-up through Twito among other things in the last level of the day to soar to third.
Also bagging an above average stack are partypoker pro Kristen Bicknell, who spun it up from just eleven big blind at the start of the day, Basil Yaiche, and the day 1c chip leader Anton Morgenstern. Other more familiar faces who have made it through to the final day include Mustafa Biz, Day 3 chip leader Pavel Kovalenko, Dori Yacoub, Florian Duta, and Andreas Christoforou.
2019 Merit Poker Classic Final Day Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | 4,980,000 | 50 |
| 1 | 2 | Ulan Dzholdoshbekov | Russia | 3,500,000 | 35 |
| 1 | 3 | Dori Yacoub | Lebanon | 3,120,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 4 | Daniel Braude | Israel | 2,630,000 | 26 |
| 1 | 5 | Hasan Dogan | Turkey | 3,200,000 | 32 |
| 1 | 6 | Mustafa Biz | Turkey | 3,415,000 | 34 |
| 1 | 7 | --empty-- | - | ||
| 1 | 8 | Selahaddin Bedir | Turkey | 3,350,000 | 34 |
| 1 | 9 | Anton Morgenstern | Germany | 4,300,000 | 43 |
| 2 | 1 | --empty-- | - | ||
| 2 | 2 | Anatoly Suvorov | Russia | 2,200,000 | 22 |
| 2 | 3 | Shahar Levi | Israel | 7,255,000 | 73 |
| 2 | 4 | Liran Twito | Israel | 7,470,000 | 75 |
| 2 | 5 | Ludovic Geilich | United Kingdom | 8,080,000 | 81 |
| 2 | 6 | Andreas Christoforou | Cyprus | 1,700,000 | 17 |
| 2 | 7 | Pavel Kovalenko | Russia | 3,405,000 | 34 |
| 2 | 8 | Florian Duta | Romania | 1,995,000 | 20 |
| 2 | 9 | Basil Yaiche | France | 5,385,000 | 54 |
While day 4 started with 66 players, after a flurry of eliminations in the first stages of the day only 37 remained at the first break. Albert Daher, birthday boy Milad Oghabian, Stoyan Abreshkov, Lachezar Petkov, Uri Reichenstein, day 2 chip leader Sergey Baburin, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Vlad Darie, and Joey Weissman were some of the bigger names who didn��t get through the first two levels of the day.
In the next two levels the pace of bustouts dropped, but the likes of Andrey Pateychuk, Boris Kolev, Elvin Sarkarov, Joep Raemaekers, and Kenny Hallaert were among those that had to part ways. Hallaert managed to catch his flight in time as his pocket eights got beaten by the ace-queen of Daniel Braude, who ended up with the better kicker on a seven-seven-seven-seven-deuce board.
Twenty-five players went into the last break of the day and things started slowing down even more. The likes of Dragos Trofimov, Ben Farrell and Manig Loeser, who lost his stack to Bicknell, fell along the way. Daniil Kiselev busted with ace-jack against the eights of Morgenstern, followed by Orhan Ates who was the final elimination of the night. Fittingly, it was Geilich who did him in to bag the overall chip lead.
The final sixteen players will return at noon local time on Sunday, May 12, to play down to a winner. The eventual champion will walk away with the first-place prize of a staggering $565,157. Action resumes in level 25, with a small blind of 50,000, a big blind of 100,000, and big blind ante of 100,000.
Follow along with PokerNews live reporting to see who will be victorious here in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus!
