Only 21 players are left from what started as a massive field spread out over two rooms inside the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino with a chance to take down the title of Merit Poker Carmen Series $2,200 Warmup champion when Day 4 resumes at 1 p.m. local time.
Koray Korkmaz rode a late surge yesterday to the top of the chip counts with 7,050,000, but right behind him is a group of players hoping to track him down and get their hands on the trophy. Eduard Barsegian starts the day in second place with 5,080,000, while Julien Loire (4,610,000) and Nicolas Chouity (3,800,000) are also well-positioned to make a run at the title here today.
Further down the leaderboard are Viktor Ustimov (3,100,000), Ran Ilani (2,655,000), Recep Aydemir (1,795,000), and Arie Kliper (1,500,000).
Start-of-Day Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|
| 1 | Koray Korkmaz | 7,050,000 | 71 |
| 2 | Eduard Barsegian | 5,080,000 | 51 |
| 3 | Dmitry Gromov | 4,900,000 | 49 |
| 4 | Julien Loire | 4,610,000 | 46 |
| 5 | Boris Angelov | 4,550,000 | 46 |
| 6 | Nicolas Chouity | 3,800,000 | 38 |
| 7 | Basel Khabbazeh | 3,440,000 | 34 |
| 8 | Damir Zhugralin | 3,400,000 | 34 |
| 9 | Viktor Ustimov | 3,100,000 | 31 |
| 10 | Mikhail Zamyatin | 3,005,000 | 30 |
| 11 | Michael Uguccioni | 2,865,000 | 29 |
| 12 | Cenk Nigbolu | 2,755,000 | 28 |
| 13 | Ran Ilani | 2,655,000 | 27 |
| 14 | Recep Aydemir | 1,795,000 | 18 |
| 15 | Petr Skripka | 1,570,000 | 16 |
| 16 | Arie Kliper | 1,500,000 | 15 |
| 17 | Gurcan Gungoren | 1,275,000 | 13 |
| 18 | Luc Bindel | 1,270,000 | 13 |
| 19 | Maksim Skripkin | 935,000 | 9 |
| 20 | Saman Nakhjavani | 920,000 | 9 |
| 21 | Jakub Michalak | 825,000 | 8 |
Play picks up on Level 27, with blinds at 50,000-100,000 and a 100,000 big blind ante. The feature table will be streamed on Merit Poker’s YouTube and Facebook channels on a delay until a new champion is crowned.
A total of 611 entries began the tournament four days ago. These 21 survivors are all that remain. By the end of play tonight, just one will be left standing and be able to call themselves a Merit Poker champion.
Stay tuned as PokerNews provides all the live updates as they plan down to the final table and on to a champion.
Tags:
Arie KliperEduard BarsegianJulien LoireKoray KorkmazNicolas ChouityRan IlaniRecep AydemirViktor Ustimov
board as he was eliminated in 20th place.
while Bindel was looking to complete a straight to stay alive. The board ran out 
and Bindel missed to become the first casualty of the day.
and Gungoren made a pair of sevens to survive.
