Three-handed on a flop of 10♥6♣3♣, Jose Nehme bet 25,000 from under the gun before Osman Ihlamur moved all in for 158,000 in middle position. Andrei Daniliuk stuck in his last 94,000 in the hijack and Nehme asked for a count of both opponents before eventually folding.
Andrei Daniliuk: K♦K♠
Osman Ihlamur: 3♠3♦
Ihlamur had flopped a set to leave Daniliuk at risk of having his kings cracked. The board ran out Q♠4♣ and Daniliuk was eliminated shortly before the end of the night.
Aleksandar Tot and Antoine Hasbani are also at this table with two of the biggest stacks in the room.
Gang Zhao got his last 164,500 in the middle before the flop from early position and was up against Aylar Lie in middle position.
Gang Zhao: A♦A♣
Aylar Lie: K♠K♣
Lie had run into the ultimate cooler and found no miracles on the 3♥10♦9♣7♦4♦ as she handed over a significant portion of her stack at the end of the night.
Ermanno Di Nicola’s experience through the first two days of the Merit Poker Western Series couldn’t have been any different.
Di Nicola was the first player eliminated in the opening flight of the $2,200 Warm Up yesterday as he ended up going through multiple entries without bagging chips. Today on Day 1b, he not only made it through the day but finished as chip leader over the 68 surviving players.
Di Nicola built up a big stack over the day and aggressively used it to accumulate even more chips, picking off bluffs from Justus Held and applying pressure to fellow big stack Behrouz Ghaedi in two sizeable pots. The recent WSOP bracelet winner ended up with 937,500, just trailing the million-chip stack that Peng Yang bagged up yesterday.
Aleksandar Tot (827,500), Antoine Hasbani (559,500), Jalal Jafari (455,000), and Vitalii Pankov (419,500) also ended Day 1b as big stacks. Gang Zhao, part of the sizeable Chinese contingent that has already made their mark on the tournament, found aces against Aylar Lie’s kings near the end of the night to finish with 413,000.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Ermanno Di Nicola
Italy
937,500
375
2
Aleksandar Tot
Montenegro
827,500
331
3
Antoine Hasbani
Lebanon
559,500
224
4
Qusai Albakeer
n/a
549,500
220
5
Ramez Haddad
Lebanon
521,000
208
6
Sergey Bortsov
Israel
456,500
183
7
Jalal Jafari
Turkey
455,000
182
8
Andre Mehreb
Lebanon
440,000
176
9
Vitalii Pankov
Russia
419,500
168
10
Gang Zhao
China
413,000
165
Others to book their ticket for Day 2 include Adrian State (290,500), Ara Melkisetian (207,000), Thomas Eychenne (203,000), Felipe Ketzer (192,000), and Andrey Pateychuk (190,500). Cheng Zhao, coming off a final-table run at EPT Prague last month, ended up with 116,000, while Lie finished with 83,500 after suffering that late cooler.
A total of 162 entries came out for Day 1b, building a field of 277 through two starting flights. Just 115 will return for Day 2. There is also a Day 1c flight that begins at 9:30 p.m. with 25-minute levels, and a Day 1d flight tomorrow at 10 a.m. with 15-minute levels. Survivors will combine for Day 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time. Late registration remains open through the end of Level 12 on Day 2, with players allowed unlimited reentries.
PokerNews will also return tomorrow for Day 2 as the field begins the march towards the money. Stay tuned for live updates throughout the remainder of the festival here at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.