Maxime Chilaud Runs Over the Competition to Bag Huge Chip Lead on Day 2 Of $5,300 High Roller
Day 2 of the 2023 Merit Poker Gangster Series $5,300 High Roller hosted by the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel saw a total field of 121 players after late registration had closed.
After 18 levels of play, France’s Maxime Chilaud bagged a massive chip lead with an impressive stack of 1,729,000. Chilaud was quiet early on, but seemingly out of nowhere, he was the first player to surpass the million-chip mark. He would not lose the chip lead for the remainder of the night and will go into Day 3 as the only player still sitting with over 100 big blinds.
Chilaud is also no stranger to winning big at this property. Earlier this year he took down the 2023 Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event for a cool $376,800. Is there another Merit Poker Trophy in his future? Chances are he will let his chips answer that question by day's end.
This would be followed by the Turkish crusher Recep Aydemir (1,055,000), Poland’s Dawid Smolka (1,000,000), Bracelet winner Guo Liang Wei (971,000), and Rytis Strigunas (907,000) to round out the top five.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maxime Chilaud | France | 1,729,000 | 108 |
| 2 | Recep Aydemir | Turkey | 1,055,000 | 66 |
| 3 | Dawid Smolka | Poland | 1,000,000 | 63 |
| 4 | Guo Liang Wei | China | 971,000 | 61 |
| 5 | Rytis Strigunas | United Kingdom | 907,000 | 57 |
| 6 | Aleksandr Kirichenko | Russia | 865,000 | 54 |
| 7 | Leonid Sidelkovskii | Russia | 839,000 | 52 |
| 8 | Kully Sidhu | United Kingdom | 632,000 | 40 |
| 9 | Dmitrij Pokhabov | Cyprus | 505,000 | 32 |
| 10 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 451,000 | 28 |
Some other notable names to find a bag on Day 2 include two-time bracelet winner Dmitry Yurasov with 228,000, Giorgiy Skhulukhiya of Georgia with 451,000, Natan Chauskin of Belarus with 451,000, and Day 1 chip leader Dmitry Gromov with 255,000.
Unfortunately, not everyone is still in the mix for the $149,200 top prize. Ivan Govorov, who won the $2,200 Warm Up fell short of a cash, Warm Up third place finisher Ankit Ahuja had a good showing but couldn’t break through to the third day, and Danut Chisu could not secure another win in the Gangster Series High Roller.
Day 3 of the High Roller kicks off on Tuesday at an earlier time of 2:00 p.m. and is scheduled to play down to a winner. The final table is set to be live-streamed on the Merit Poker YouTube channel.
There is a total of $556,660 in the prize pool, but as of now, none of the players have made the money. There are still 22 players remaining, and only 15 of them will earn a minimum cash of $8,900. The players will begin the day at level 19 with blinds of 8,000/16,000/16,000. The current average stack is still at 34 big blinds, and there will still be a lot of movement up and down the leaderboard for players. Make sure you don't miss any of the action!
As always, stay tuned into PokerNews for all the updates on the Merit Poker Gangster Series and all the other best events happening around the world!