Petrov Leads the Final 96 Players in Day 3 of $3,300 Main Event
The penultimate day is upon us in the 2023 Merit Poker Gangster Series $3,300 Main Event here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. Day 1a chip leader Aleksei Petrov both started Day 2 and finished Day 2 with the largest stack in the room and will have 1,678,000 chips going into Day 3 today, a stack worth 168 big blinds. Petrov is most closely followed by the United Kingdom's Mark Smith (1,535,000) and Russia's Alexey Popov (1,301,000).
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleksei Petrov | Russian Federation | 1,678,000 | 168 |
| 2 | Mark Smith | United Kingdom | 1,535,000 | 154 |
| 3 | Alexey Popov | Russian Federation | 1,301,000 | 130 |
| 4 | Simas Karaliunas | Lithuania | 1,300,000 | 130 |
| 5 | Christos Leantzis | Cyprus | 1,284,000 | 128 |
| 6 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 1,269,000 | 127 |
| 7 | Hadi Khadra | Lebanon | 1,224,000 | 122 |
| 8 | Razvan Sabau | Romania | 1,209,000 | 121 |
| 9 | John One | Unknown | 1,095,000 | 110 |
| 10 | Dmitry Gromov | Russian Federation | 1,092,000 | 109 |
Day 2 of the Main Event started with 195 survivors across the four Day 1 starting flights. Five more levels of late registration were available to start the day which attracted a further 119 entrants, bringing the total field size to 566 and generating a total prize pool of $1,562,160.
Some notable players to advance to Day 3 include anonymous player and Day 1c chip leader "John One" (1,095,000), World Poker Tour champion Dmitry Gromov (1,092,000), Day 1b chip leader Shuang Luo (1,014,000), Victor Yugay (998,000), Yunsheng Sun (856,000), Oleg Netaliev (798,000), Selahaddin Bedir (732,000), Halil Tasyurek (510,000), two-time braclet winner Dmitry Yurasov (500,000) and Guoliang Wei (348,000).
Day 3 of the Main Event will start at 12:00 p.m. local time and play ten hour-long levels. The money bubble will burst today with the top 71 finishers being guaranteed at least a min-cash of $4,840 but all eyes will be on the title and top prize of $295,500. The blinds will start at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the updates for this event from the moment cards are in the air until a winner is crowned tomorrow, December 3 on the final day.