Level: 4
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 1,000
2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series
$3,300 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Top
Chip Counts
Chip Counts
3
240,000
8
150,000
Level 3
: Blinds 400/800, 800 ante
There were around 40,000 chips in the pot on a A?3?Q? flop that had four player in it, including Grigorii Rodin in the small blind and Sergei Varnaev in the big blind.
All four checked the flop to the K? turn, where the action checked to Amir Mohammadi in the cutoff, who fired 25,500. One by one, all three of his opponents folded, and he raked in a pot to bring his stack up to around 140,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
190,000
10,000
|
10,000 |
|
|
150,000
150,000
|
150,000 |
|
140,000
140,000
|
140,000 |
Level 3
: Blinds 400/800, 800 ante
Last year in the 2024 Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 Main Event, It took nearly 12 hour-long levels for a winner to emerge from the 41 players who entered the final day at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.
Elie Farah was the last player standing, scoring five final table knockouts and last defeating Felipe Ketzer in heads-up play to take home the title and top prize of $338,500.
Farah notably was down to his last 125,000 chips on the stone bubble during Day 3 aciton, worth just five big blinds at that time. His previous best score before this comes from an eighth-place finish in the 2022 Merit Poker Retro Series Main Event for $30,255. This victory not only exceeds his previous best more than tenfold, it also triples his total live tournament earnings which before this event stood at just under $150,000.
2024 Carmen Series Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elie Farah | Lebanon | $338,500 |
| 2 | Felipe Ketzer | Brazil | $249,200 |
| 3 | Dinesh Alt | Switzerland | $153,000 |
| 4 | Bart Lybaert | Belgium | $113,100 |
| 5 | Dmitry Gromov | Russian Federation | $84,700 |
| 6 | Tahsin Cankurtaranli | Turkey | $68,400 |
| 7 | Andrey Litvinov | Russian Federation | $56,600 |
| 8 | Maher Achour | Tunisia | $45,100 |
| 9 | Danut Chisu | Romania | $33,900 |
Level 3
: Blinds 400/800, 800 ante
There were already around 20,000 chips in the pot on a 9?3?J?4? board when Francisco Moreno checked from middle position and Aliaksandr Smolski fired 14,000 on the button. Moreno called.
A 9? paired the board on the river and Moreno checked once again, then Smolski shoved 50,000. Moreno had around 35,000 behind and after thinking it over, he called to put himself at risk.
Smolski then showed aces with A?A?. and Moreno showed them mucked his K?J?.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
130,000
130,000
|
130,000 |
|
Busted |
Level 3
: Blinds 400/800, 800 ante
Don’t miss any of the exciting poker action at Merit this spring, as both the Merit Millions and Mediterranean Poker Party are on the way.
The special Merit Millions event will run from April 8-13, with a buy-in of $10,400 over four starting flights. The champion will earn $1,000,000, with the rest of the prize pool distributed between players at the final table.
The Mediterranean Poker Party (MPP) returns to Merit from May 3-13, bringing with it more than $10 million in guaranteed prize pools, including a monster-sized $5,300 buy-in, $5 million guaranteed MPP Main Event.
Featuring four flights, the MPP Main Event runs from May 8-12 and could see the champion reel in a million-dollar score. In 2024, some 1,260 entries resulted in a $6,048,000 prize pool, much more than the advertised $5 million guarantee.
Look out for satellites running on GGPoker and win your way to Merit this spring!
Level 3
: 400/800, 800 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
250,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
|
240,000
240,000
|
240,000 |
|
|
200,000
85,000
|
85,000 |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
190,000
90,000
|
90,000 |
|
||
|
180,000
180,000
|
180,000 |
|
150,000
150,000
|
150,000 |
|
|
||
Level: 3
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 800
Level 2
: Blinds 300/600, 600 ante
Players are heading on their first 15-minute break of the day.
Level 2
: Blinds 300/600, 600 ante
Elie Farah took down the Carmen Series Main Event last year after besting 664 entries, and has started the defence of his title here on Day 1a.
In a recent pot, the board read 7?5?6?8? and Lyudmil Ivanov had checked from the big blind, then called a bet of 6,000 from Farah in early position.
A 4? on the river put a straight on board and Ivanov checked. Farah then put out a healthy bet of 25,000, which prompted a quick fold from Ivanov.
Farah then showed Ivanov he made the correct fold as he flipped the 9? for the top end of the straight,
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
105,000
105,000
|
105,000 |
|
77,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
Level 2
: Blinds 300/600, 600 ante
Sergei Varnaev dusted off a bullet earlier on and just polished off another as he bluffed into Alisa Sibgatova.
Qiang Xu opened from middle position to 1,300 and Sibgatova called in the cutoff before Varnaev three-bet the button to 7,200. Both Xu and Sibgatova called.
The flop came down 8?6?3? and the action checked to Varnaev, who fired out 7,500. Both Xu and Sibgatova called to watch the K? land on the turn. Again the action checked to Varnaev, who tossed out a white chip worth 25,000, and bet all of it. Xu folded, but Sibgatova called.
When the 4? dropped on the river, Sibgatova checked for a third time and Varnaev took around twenty seconds before he shoved around 50,000. Sibgatova took just a few seconds before she made the call.
Varnaev, with a smile, showed a bluff with A?5?, and Sibgatova scooped the pot with a flopped set holding 3?3?.
"I didn't expect he would play that way," said Sibgatova with a smile.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
220,000
220,000
|
220,000 |
|
80,000
80,000
|
80,000 |
|
||
|
|
Busted | |
