Beg Leads 109 Survivors; Big Names In the Mix Close to the Money Bubble
The crown jewel of the 2021 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North Cyprus festival at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel Casino & Spa in Girne, North Cyprus is one step closer to crowning a champion. Out of a field of 839 entries, only 109 hopefuls remain in the mix and the top 98 finishers will receive a portion of the $3,859,400 prize pool.
It was an incredibly busy day in the conference centre which saw the field size padded with another 140 entries in the three hours of late registration. Once nine levels of 60 minutes each were completed, the tournament all but reached the money bubble but didn't get there yet.
Furkan Beg soared into the top spot in the final level of the night after scoring a massive double through the 2020 WSOP Online International Main Event champion Stoyan Madanzhiev and finished the night with 2,520,000 in chips. The Bulgarian also made it through, albeit with a shorter stack of just 420,000.
Other big stacks belong to Giorgiy Skhulukhiya (2,190,000), Vlad Darie (2,170,000), Zorlu Er (2,128,000), Dominik Panka (1,966,000), Martin Mulsow (1,678,000) and Turkish High Roller Selahaddin Bedir (1,573,000). Russian star in the making Artur Martirosian was also involved until the very end to claim 1,484,000 for the penultimate tournament day.
Team partypoker had three hopes in the field but only one of them made it through in Joni Jouhkimainen. The Finn spent most of the day on an action-loaded table and advanced with 975,000. For John Duthie, the end came during the early stages already when he ran into pocket kings and Jeff Gross busted in the final level via coin flip.
Many other big names also left without anything to show for. Nicolas Chouity, Matas Cimbolas, $10,500 High Roller runner-up Tobias Duthweiler, Roberto Romanello, Manig Loeser, Paul Newey, Bart Lybaert and Jakub Michalak all failed to advance for a shot at the money stages.
The same also applied for the French online streamers Timothe Busso and Killian Desnos, who both busted in level 16 minutes apart from each other. Desnos three-bet jammed with ace-nine suited into the ace-king of Martin Mulsow and failed to get there with his one live card and a gutshot.
As the late eliminations kept pouring in, the money bubble was already in sight when the final three hands were announced. Ultimately, 109 hopefuls bagged up for the night and they will return at noon local time the following day. The blinds then will be 10,000/20,000 with a big blind ante of 20,000 and it remains to be seen whether or not the final table can be reached.
board. It had been a four-bet pot in which Beg jammed for more than the pot and was called by the Bulgarian.
were good for the second pair while Beg had 
for a set of jacks. He was about to go for a short break but ran back to his seat when the cards were tabled. That proved to be an important decision for the next hand when Martynas Vitkauskas got it in preflop and was snapped off by Beg.
and Beg knocked out another opponent to further soar up the leaderboard.
board and the Day 1a chip leader was eliminated.
, Ardon check-called for 24,000 and checked again the 
on the river.
flop improved Isaia to the superior pair and the 
first with the words "it is the best ace" and then also exposed the 
board.
turn nor the 
