Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
Players are on a 15-minute break.
2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series
$3,300 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Top
Chip Counts
Chip Counts
3
240,000
Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
The action was picked up on a board of 5?2?6? with 20,000 in the pot where Dean Hutchinson had fired 7,000, and Boris Smuskevicius called.
A J? on the turn saw Hutchinson check-call a bet of 11,000 from Smuskevicius to see the A? drop on the river. Hutchinson checked again then Smuskevicius shoved for around 43,000. After some time, Hutchinson decided to fold, and Smuskevicius took it down.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
100,000
100,000
|
100,000 |
|
65,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
Iurii Grigorev just busted the $5,300 High Roller in 21st, but instantly hopped into the Main Event and had already doubled his stack before he was caught in a hand.
The full board was out and showing 7?Q?6?A?2? with 20,000 in the pot and a player in early position had fired out 8,000. Grigorev thought for a while and decided to call, and was shown J?J? by his opponent. Grigorev then flipped A?5? for a pair of aces to scoop the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
220,000 |
Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
Back in January, the $3,300 Main Event of the 2025 Merit Poker Western Series saw Umberto Ruggeri crowned the champion after overcoming a record-breaking field of 791 inside the stunning Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.
The Italian player battled through countless emotional highs and challenging moments to claim the coveted trophy after cutting an undisclosed deal with Mihai Niste and Muhtar Taysi when three players remained.
Ruggeri expressed his joy after the victory, stating, "I’m very enthusiastic, and I think I played very well in key spots." The final table was not without its difficulties, as Ruggeri acknowledged, "It was very hard. A single moment can change everything, but in the end, it all went very well."
2025 Merit Poker Western Series Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Umberto Ruggeri | Italy | $377,500 |
| 2 | Mihai Niste | Romania | $251,000 |
| 3 | Muhtar Taysi | Turkey | $180,300 |
| 4 | Mario Colavita | Italy | $130,200 |
| 5 | Xiaosheng Zheng | China | $94,600 |
| 6 | Alexander Sokolovsky | Serbia | $75,900 |
| 7 | Ryan Mandara | United Kingdom | $63,200 |
| 8 | Renars Skanis | Latvia | $50,500 |
| 9 | Edward Quinn | Jersey | $37,950 |
Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
Day 1a is ticking along nicely with 193 entries on the clock and 156 players still in their seats.
Hassan Nashar has joined the field recently. Humberto Lopes Galindo just exited after his turned set holding 4?4? fell to his opponent's 9?9? on a board of 7?8?J?4?10?.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
200,000
60,000
|
60,000 |
|
150,000
100,000
|
100,000 |
|
100,000 | |
|
Busted |
Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
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Level 4
: Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante
It's been a slow start for both Dean Hutchinson and Humberto Lopes Galindo, who have both dropped down the pecking order from their initial starting stack of 100,000.
The two just played a pot together on a board of A?8?Q? with 12,000 in the middle where Hutchinson check-called a bet on the flop to see the 10? on the turn. Again, Hutchinson went into check-call mode when Galindo bet 8,800.
A 10? filled out the board on the river and after Hutchinson checked, Galindo bet 26,100, leaving himself just 100 behind. Hutchinson thought for a while but thought better of it and folded, allowing Galindo to rake in the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
65,000
35,000
|
35,000 |
|
|
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Level: 4
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 1,000
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 |
