Merit Poker Classic

Jet off to the beautiful Mediterranean paradise of Cyprus and kick off World Poker Tour Season XI in style as the luxurious Merit Crystal Cove Casino and Resort hosts the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic presented by PartyPoker.com. This $4,000 + $400 Main Event runs from 4-9 August and offers a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000. Merit Poker Classic, Kyrenia. 2.1k away from Montenegro, as the crow flies, lies the Merit Crystal Cove in Kyrenia, and between Wed 8 and Sat 11 May, there will be a $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller as part of the Merit Poker Classic. The first 100 players to buy into the Merit Poker Classic Main Event using PP LIVE Dollars will receive a free hotel room for seven nights at the Merit Park Hotel. The package includes free food and drinks at the hotel. If a refund is requested the hotel will be cancelled before the refund is processed.

2.1k away from Montenegro, as the crow flies, lies the Merit Crystal Cove in Kyrenia, and between Wed 8 and Sat 11 May, there will be a $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller as part of the Merit Poker Classic.

Merit Crystal Cove Casino

Situated by one of the most beautiful coves in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Zephyros Cove, stretching toward the clear waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino is 10 kilometers from Girne’s city center and 45 kilometers from Ercan Airport, at the confluence of green and blue right on the sea.

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More than thirteen hours after the final day started, a winner has been crowned in the Merit Poker Classic $5,300 Main Event. It’s a home island win for Cyprus’ own Andreas Christoforou, who grabbed the first-place prize of $565,157 by defeating Israel’s Liran Twito heads-up. The tournament was organized by Merit Poker, in conjunction with partypoker LIVE and Poker Club Management here in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino and attracted 649 entries in total, which included 211 entries, which created a total prize pool of $2,990,267.

This win is Christoforou’s biggest cash ever in the live tournament circuit, nearly doubling his total winnings in one fell swoop (according to The Hendon Mob) and will take him to second place on the Cyprus All Time Money List. Christoforou started the day at the short stack but managed to wield himself through the minefield of eliminations to claim the win in the end with a huge rail cheering him on along the way.

Other notable players to have reached the final table of ten included the two partypoker pros Kristen Bicknell and Ludovic Geilich, Basil Yaiche, Anton Morgenstern, Mustafa Biz, and Florian Duta.

2019 Merit Poker Classic Main Event Final Table Results

2019 Merit Poker Classic Main Event Final Day Action

Sixteen players returned at noon local time for the final day of the Merit Poker Classic, with start-of-the-day chip leader Geilich was off to a bad start when he first doubled up Anatoly Suvarov and Duta. Geilich quickly recovered by eliminating Sharar Levi, as well as Pavel Kovalenko. The latter went down with jacks against jacks, where the Scotsman spiked a four-flush to send him out. Despite doubling earlier, Suvarov was next to go when he shoved his last ten big blinds with queen-jack and also fell victim to Geilich who held ace-seven.

However, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for the popular Scotsman, and Christoforou started off his ascent towards the eventual victory by doubling through Geilich with a rivered a pair of aces against pocket nines. His stack still consisted of mere crumbs at that point: once the final table kicked off Geilich was holding the chip lead, while Christoforou was the second shortest stack.

Florian Duta and Mustafa Biz were the first to bow out from the ten-handed final table before notable German pro Anton Morgenstern fell in eight. It took three hours of eight-handed play before the German busted in a classic coin flip with ace-king versus Twito's pocket jacks. Selahaddin Bedir also got cooked by Twito, this time with Bedir holding jacks onto to walk into Twito's pocket aces. The blades held up to leave six at dinner with Twito leading.

After dinner, former chip leader Geilich fell to Twito when he ran jack-ten suited into the Israeli's ace-jack and didn't improve. Twito went four for four just five minutes after, taking out Basil Yaiche with eights versus sixes. Holding half the chips in play at that point, Twito ramped up the aggression on the other three, but it was Christoforou that took care of fourth-place finisher Braude to bring the field down to its final three hopefuls.

Merit Poker Classic Winners

The three were ready to discuss a deal and agreed to look at the numbers but decided to play out the current hand first before entering negotiations. That decision proved to be crucial for Christoforou who doubled up with pocket queens through Twito to decrease the gap between them. The new state of affairs eventually resulted in a declined deal, which proved unfortunate for Bicknell as she busted out in third by shoving king-six into the ace-ten of Christoforou.

Numbers were once again considered, but no deal was agreed and play continued. The chip lead went back and forth over the span of almost two hours, and Christoforou held the lead when the final hand occurred. Twito shoved with ace-eight. Christoforou called with king-ten suited and turned a flush while avoiding another club on the river which would have given Twito the nut-flush. With the rail and Christoforou himself exploding from happiness, the Merit Poker tournament was over with the home town hero claiming the gold.

Merit Poker Classic 2019

This concludes PokerNews live coverage from the Merit Crystal Cove & Hotel in Cyprus. There's plenty more from Merit Poker on the horizon. The next partypoker LIVE tournament is around the corner, when the Playground Poker Club in Montreal will host the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America event. PokerNews will be back on the floor to cover all the action.

Merit Poker Classic Results

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