Day 1a of the €1,650 Main Event at the Merit Poker Montenegro Championship is complete inside the Merit Royal Splendid Casino in Budva, with the opening flight drawing 149 entries to kick off the festival’s headline event.
Players began with 100,000 chips and worked their way through nine 60-minute levels, with only 59 managing to survive the day and find a bag for Day 2.
Italy’s Fausto Tantillo once again finished the day with the biggest stack, bagging 825,000 to claim his second chip lead of the series in Budva. Tantillo also topped the counts at the end of Day 2 in the €880 Merit Poker Cup earlier this week, continuing a strong run of form.
He finished ahead of Igor Abelmasov (545,000) and Andrei Daniliuk (540,000), with Bobby James (520,000) and Vladimir Lappo (519,000) also finding bags after productive sessions.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
Tantillo’s day included a few moments that helped him separate from the pack. Early on, he extracted maximum value with pocket aces against Lennart Beumelburg, then later picked off a bluff from Erdal Gulseven with a pair of tens, continuing to build as the levels ticked over.
Giorgiy Skhulukhiya
One of the biggest pots of the flight came late, when James scooped a huge pot against Giorgiy Skhulukhiya. After check-calling the flop and turn, James pulled the trigger with a check-shove on the river and was quickly called, only to table a flopped set that cracked Skhulukhiya’s pocket aces and sent a mountain of chips his way.
Lappo also featured in one of the day’s standout hands, but this time on the other side of it. On a board that had already produced a flush, he correctly let his hand go when Davor Mudric showed a flopped straight flush after betting the river.
Davor Mudric
Elsewhere, Ivan Bozhenko won a last-level flip against Nikolay Fal, spiking top set to secure a double late in the day, while Srdan Milicevic made a big call to put himself at risk and was rewarded with a clean river to double through Mihail Ketlerov.
Several other familiar faces ended the day with healthy stacks, including Timur Margolin (449,500), Uri Reichenstein (438,500), Viktoria Shalneva (388,000), and Milicevic (370,500), with Mazalahedwa Bako (329,000) also making it through.
Main Event Schedule
Day 1b gets underway tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. local time with the same 60-minute structure, offering another full-day grind for players looking to secure a bag.
There are still two more flights after that, including a 40-minute Day 1c and a 25-minute turbo Day 1d, with late registration remaining open until the end of Level 14 on Day 2.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage from Budva as the €1,650 Main Event continues at the Merit Poker Montenegro Championship.