Vedat Yilmaz opened to 125,000 from the cutoff and Nichan Khorchidian three-bet to 425,000 from the small blind. Yilmaz made the call.
The flop came A♥8♠3♠ and Khorchidian fired a 275,000 continuation bet. Yilmaz raised to 850,000 and Khorchidian moved all in, covering Yilmaz who had roughly 1,600,000 behind. Yilmaz went deep into the tank.
After using three time extensions to weigh his options Yilmaz ultimately decided to fold and Khorchidian took down a chunky pot without having to go to showdown.
Damir Zhugralin opened to 60,000 from early position and Mustafa Ercan three-bet to 130,000 from middle position. Nariman Yaghmai then moved all in for 685,000, forcing a fold from Zhugralin while Ercan made the call to put Yaghmai at risk.
Nariman Yaghmai: A♥K♣
Mustafa Ercan: A♣8♣
Yaghmai was ahead with a bigger ace and remained so on the 5♣K♥5♠K♠5♦ runout to score a full double up through Ercan.
Wael Sarkis opened to 125,000 from the hijack and Ara Melkisetian moved all in for 1,080,000 from the button. Mustafa Ercan then reshoved with a covering stack, forcing out Sarkis to leave Melkisetian at risk.
Ara Melkisetian: K♠Q♣
Mustafa Ercan: A♠K♦
Ercan was in great shape to score the knockout until the Q♦8♠3♣ flop gave Melkisetian top pair, leaving Ercan drawing to three outs. Ercan couldn't catch a king on the 2♣ turn or 7♦ river and Melkisetian dragged in a nice pot at his expense.
The penultimate day has concluded in the 2024 Merit Poker Western Series $3,300 Main Event here at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in North Cyprus. Only 24 players remain from a field of 672 entrants after 27 levels of play across the first three days.
Italy's Ermanno Di Nicola bagged the overall chip lead, finishing the night with an impressive 5,770,000 chips worth 72 big blinds going into the final day. Di Nicola is most closely followed by fellow Italian Giuliano Boellis and Brazilian crusher Felipe Ketzer, both of whom bagged exactly 5,495,000 to end the night.
Western Series $3,300 Main Event Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Ermanno Di Nicola
Italy
5,770,000
72
2
Giuliano Boellis
Italy
5,495,000
69
3
Felipe Ketzer
Brazil
5,495,000
69
4
Damir Zhugralin
Kazakhstan
5,060,000
63
5
Mohamed Mokrani
France
4,910,000
61
6
Nichan Khorchidian
Lebanon
4,665,000
58
7
Andreas Christoforou
Cyprus
3,700,000
46
8
Wael Sarkis
Lebanon
3,505,000
44
9
Aleksandr Kirichenko
Russia
3,220,000
40
10
Samy Barka
France
2,885,000
36
Giuliano Boellis
The day began with 129 players returning from Day 2, somewhat close to the money given that 80 spots were paid. France's Mohamed Mokrani got off to a good start after fading a flush draw from Nan Zhu to score a full double up in the first level of the day. Mokrani would ride that momentum all the way to the end of the night where he would finish fifth in chips with 4,910,000.
Maher Achour would become the unfortunate soul to burst the money bubble after losing a flip against Gang Zhou. From that point on all remaining players were guaranteed at least a min-cash worth $4,640.
Felipe Ketzer
Felipe Ketzer was active from start to finish today and was consistently making the right decisions throughout the day. He would send the Western Series $5,300 High Roller champion Maksim Shornikauto the rail early on today and never slowed down from there. Midway through the day he would make a great call against Mokrani with just ace-high and suddenly was among the biggest stacks in the room. Later in the evening he would knock out Ali Zebarjad with pocket-kings in another big pot, ultimately finishing the night with the third-largest stack.
Some other notable players to find a bag and advance to the final day include Aleksandr Kirichenko (3,220,000), Day 1a chip leader Samy Barka (2,855,000) and Day 1d chip leader Vedat Yilmaz (1,630,000). Others who were not as fortunate to advance to the final day include Fabio Peluso, Dmitry Yurasov, Andrew Hedley, Andrea Dato, Qiang Xu, Dmitry Gromov, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Shuang Luo, Dean Hutchison, Guoliang Wei and Roman Hrabec who was eliminated in the final hand of the evening.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the action for the final day of the event, set to start tomorrow January 25 at 12:00 p.m. local time with blinds starting at 40,000/80,000 with an 80,000 big blind ante.
