Edward Quinn raised to 12,000 from middle position and Antoine Hasbani shoved out of the small blind for roughly 80,000. Quinns called to try and bust Hasbani.
Antoine Hasbani: A♠6♥
Edward Quinn: A♦K♥
Hasbani was dominated by Quinn's Big Slick and needed a six to stay alive. However, the runout of 2♦K♠5♣5♥J♥ didn't help Hasbani as Quinn improved to a pair of kings. Hasbani was out and the pot was pushed over to Quinn.
Luke Marsh opened from middle position before Maher Achour three-bet him from the hijack. When it folded back to Marsh he four-bet to roughly 100,000, which Achour called.
WIth around 220,000 in the middle, Marsh continued with a bet of 75,000 on the 10♥5♥4♣ flop. Achour shoved for Marsh's remaining 250,000 and deliberating over the decision for quite some time, Marsh reluctantly tossed his cards into the muck.
On a flop of 5♥2♣4♠, Jakub Michalak checked from under the gun and Paul Runcan bet 18,000 from the hijack. Michalak check-raised to 60,000 and Runcan carved out the call.
The two players checked the 4♦ turn to see the J♠ come on the river. Michalak bet 140,000 with just 30,000 behind. Runcan shoved and Michalak begrudgingly called for the last of his chips.
Jakub Michalak: KxJx
Paul Runcan: A♠3♠
Michalak had just a pair of jacks and was second best to flopped wheel for Runcan, meaning Michalak busted just before the end of the day.
Day 2 of the $5,300 High Roller at the 2025 Merit Poker Western Series is officially in the books, with 46 players remaining from the 174-entry field that flooded the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino today.
After all the bags were collected, France's Gregoire Auzoux topped the chip counts with an impressive stack of 892,000. The only other player to cross the eight-hundred-thousand chip mark is Turkey's Mustafa Biz, who enters tomorrow with 820,000 chips. Rounding out the podium positions is Romania's Mircea Flutur, who continued his strong showing from Day 1 to end with 780,000.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Gregoire Auzoux
France
892,000
89
2
Mustafa Biz
Turkey
820,000
82
3
Mircea Flutur
Romania
780,000
78
4
Maher Achour
Tunisia
731,000
73
5
Yiannis Liperis
Cyprus
724,000
72
6
Ludovic Uzan
France
673,000
67
7
Suat Egilli
Turkey
645,000
65
8
Adrian State
Romania
601,000
60
9
Kirill Shcherbakov
Russia
548,000
55
10
Sergei Varnaev
Russia
534,000
53
Tunisia's Maher Achour ranked fourth with 731,000 chips. A significant portion of his stack came from a pivotal hand in the penultimate level, where he won a four-bet pot by jamming over Luke Marsh's continuation-bet. Marsh folded, helping Achour climb higher on the leaderboard.
Adrian State
Eighth place going into tomorrow is Romania's Adrian State with 601,000, good for 60 big blinds. State’s day almost ended early when he shoved into Jianfeng Sun's pocket aces. However, a miraculous flop delivered quads, propelling State up the chip counts while Sun was unable to recover.
Among the remaining field, Hala Karam (341,000) and Alisa Sibgatova (120,000) are the last two women still in contention for the title come Monday, January 20. Karam gained momentum midway through the day when she flopped a set against Boris Kolev’s bottom two pair, securing her survival while sending Kolev to the rail.
Hala Karam
Other notables returning to the baize for Day 3 include Paul Runcan (508,000) after he flopped a wheel to stack Jakub Michalak during one the last hands of the evening. A few more coming back tomorrow are Michel Molenaar (401,000), Uri Reichenstein (385,000), Aliaksei Boika (349,000), Marsh (338,000), Dmitry Gromov (250,000), Bogdan Jontulovic (166,000), and the eleventh place Warm Up finisher Nicolae Paunescu (150,000).
On Day 2, 79 new entries joined the 95 from the first day to create a total field of 174. This generated a prize pool of $800,400, smashing the $500,000 that this tournament advertised. The top 23 will finish in the money, and the champion will walk away with $200,000.
Payouts
Place
Prize
1
$200,000
2
$134,000
3
$89,900
4
$65,000
5
$50,000
6
$39,000
7
$30,000
8
$23,000
9
$18,000
10-12
$14,000
13-15
$11,500
16-18
$10,000
19-23
$9,000
Day 3 begins at 4:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, January 19, with blinds resuming at Level 17 (5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante). Shortly after play starts, the floor staff will announce the plan for the day.
$5,300 High Roller Remaining Schedule
Date
Day
Time
Blind Levels
January 19
Day 3
4 p.m.
40 minutes
January 20
Day 4
1 p.m.
40 minutes
As always, PokerNews will provide live updates from the tournament floor as players battle it out to secure a spot at the final table and beyond. Stay tuned for all the action!
