2010 Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic

August 22nd, 2010

Perica Bukara came out victorious in the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out event at the 2010 Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic and walked away with a cool $373,207 in prize money at just past 5:30 a.m. in Cyprus (10:30 p.m. EST).

David Benyamine led the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic High Roller event at the end of day one.1

By end of day two, however, Bukara had taken over, having been dominant with big pre and post flop bets.2 With the group down to nine players and only the top five spots getting paid, here is how things looked going into day three:

Chip Counts for day 3 of the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out:
1 Perica Bukara 951,700
2 Ori Miller 546,000
3 John Dolan 455,500
4 Carter Phillips 401,600
5 David Benyamine 400,300
6 Andrew Feldman 356,000
7 Jon Turner 197,700
8 Sam Trickett 188,200
9 Ziv Caspi 103,500

Seats for day 3 of the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out:

Seat 1: Ziv Caspi – 103,500
Seat 2: David Benyamine – 400,300
Seat 3: John Dolan – 455,500
Seat 4: Perica Bukara – 951,700
Seat 5: Andrew Feldman – 356,000
Seat 6: Sam Trickett – 188,200
Seat 7: Ori Miller – 546,000
Seat 8: Jon Turner – 197,700
Seat 9: Carter Phillips – 401,600

On day three, Bukara rode his stack through the day and went on to win the event. The night of Friday, August 20, action whittled down to Bukara,3 Ori Miller,4 and Andrew Feldman.5 Bukara, a native of Serbia who now lives in Germany, lost the lead only once, when play was down to just him and Ori Miller. There was interesting action late between the relatively unknown Miller and Londoner Feldman (a Full Tilt pro). While only three players remained, Miller and Feldman traded places on consecutive hands. Later, Feldman was down to a very small stack and tripled, then doubled up twice. He wasn’t able to hang in there though and was eventually eliminated by Miller.

Miller took his only lead on a fold by Bukara at 9 p.m. EST. Shortly thereafter, the two remaining players came dead even at 10:21 p.m. EST. But by 10:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. Cyprus time), it was all over. Bukara had eliminated Miller to win the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out event.

Final Payouts:

1. Perica Bukara $373,207

2. Ori Miller $207,337

3. Andrew Feldman $124,402

4. David Benyamine $82,935

5. Jon Turner $41,467

A look ahead to the Full Tilt Merit Cyprus Classic Main Event:

On day 1A of the Main Event (Friday, August 20), over 100 players showed up to try their hands at the tables, which made day one more popular than last year’s entire event. Notable players who made it to day one included Nicolas, Chouity, Chip Jett, Dave Colclough, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Tommy Vedes, Chino Rheem, Van Marcus, Kelly Kim, Huseyin Yilmaz, and Julian Gardner. Vedes, Gardner, and Yilmaz were eliminated on day one, the other notables mentioned continued on to the next round of play.

At the end of day 1A, the top chip stacks were:
1 Nicolas Chouity 119,600
2 Alexey Rybin 104,325
3 Hulya Pehlivanlar 95,000
4 Nanos Koustantinos 94,650
5 Aineas Protopapas 82,000
6 Chip Jett 80,750
7 Tamer Ustaoglu 78,250
8 Musa Gunay 78,025
9 Iliodoros Kamatakis 76,175
10 Kevin O’Donnell 74,650

Top chip stacks from day 1B (Saturday, August 21):
1 John Dolan 95,400
2 Manig Loeser 91,550
3 Sorel Mizzi 90,225
4 Sam Trickett 70,000
5 Rob Peltecki 60,000
6 Karina Jett 58,000
7 Andrew Feldman 57,000
8 Andrew Gulyy 52,000
9 Ori Miller 50,000
10 Jeff Hakim 49,000

Action continues on Sunday, August 22 at 2 p.m. Cyprus time (7 a.m. EST) when the remaining 140 players will battle for a place at the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic Main Event final table.