The curtain has fallen on the first of four starting flights in the 2024 Merit Poker Gatsby Gala Series $3,300 Main Event here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. A total of 55 players managed to find a bag at the end of the night.
Leading the way is Russia’s Mikhail Zavoloka, who ended the night with an impressive 667,000 chips, worth 267 big blinds going into Day 2. Zavoloka is most followed by Felipe Ketzer who bagged 570,500 while Aleksei Gortikov rounds out the top three with 553,000.
Zavoloka was under the radar for the first half of the day before storming to the top of the chip counts in the final three levels. Zavoloka is no stranger to success in Merit Poker events, with two victories under his belt. Just over a month ago at EPT Cyprus he won the $550 No-Limit Hold’em Eureka Cup for $116,645, while he achieved his best Cyprus score from a victory in the $1,200 Mystery Bounty event as last year’s EPT Cyprus from which he took home $143,550.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Stacks
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikhail Zavoloka | Russia | 667,000 | 267 |
| 2 | Felipe Ketzer | Brazil | 570,500 | 228 |
| 3 | Aleksei Gortikov | Russia | 553,000 | 221 |
| 4 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | 539,000 | 216 |
| 5 | Philipp Hofbauer | Austria | 506,000 | 202 |
| 6 | Dauren Zhaparov | Kazakhstan | 500,000 | 200 |
| 7 | Georgios Tsouloftas | Cyprus | 459,500 | 184 |
| 8 | Spyridon Apartoglou | Greece | 452,500 | 181 |
| 9 | Denis Kapustin | Russia | 445,500 | 178 |
| 10 | Kerem Turuskan | Turkey | 430,000 | 172 |
Ketzer joined the field midway through the day, shortly after finishing the $5,300 High Roller in sixth place for $26,000. Ketzer wasted no time accumulating chips once he sat down and was constantly pressuring his opponents en route to bagging the second-largest stack of the night. The Brazilian pro has come just shy of winning a Merit Poker Main Event twice, finishing third in the Merit Poker Western Series Main Event for $155,000 this past January before taking second place in the Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event for $249,200.
Others to make it through to the end of the night include Viktor Iarilov (410,000), Daniele Grasso (290,000), Candido Cappiello (221,000), Timur Margolin (186,000) and Aleksandr Kirichenko (96,500), Notables who played Day 1a but fell before the end of the night include Andrey Pateychuk, Darius Neagoe and Elie Farah.
Three starting flights remain for this event, Day 1b starts at noon local time tomorrow, November 26. There are two starting flights the next day on November 27: Day 1c begins at noon local time, while a turbo Day 1d flight begins at 7 p.m. The fields will combine at noon on November 28 for Day 2. Late registration and reentries will remain open until the end of Level 14, midway through Day 2, and a winner will be crowned on the final day, taking place on December 1.
Stay tuned for more coverage as PokerNews brings you all the action from the remainder of the festival along the shores of the Mediterranean in North Cyprus.