2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series
Nikita Kalinin's stack had dwindled to just over 200,000 and he put them all at risk from early position after Wojciech Frankowski had opened to 100,000 from under the gun. Everybody else at the table folded, and Frankowski stuck in a chip to call.
Nikita Kalinin: K♦J♦
Wojciech Frankowski: A♥K♣
An all-spade flop of 3♠5♠10♠ didn't offer any help to either player as neither held a spade, but the Q♥ turn did give Kalinin an open-ended straight draw. However, the 8♦ river was a brick, and he made his way to the exit.
Dean Hutchison piled his stack of 540,000 into the middle from the hijack and Atanas Malinov took his time before he called from the cutoff.
Dean Hutchison: A♣9♠
Atanas Malinov: A♠A♦
Hutchinson had run into the bullets and didn't seem like he could dodge them after the 10♠6♥6♣ flop. A K♣ on the turn sealed the deal as Hutchinson was already up on his feet, and the meaningless 3♠ completed the runout.
Level: 25
Blinds: 25,000/50,000
Ante: 50,000
Players are on a 20-minute break.
Danut Chisu opened to 80,000 from late position and Fadi Zarka three-bet to 300,000 from the blinds. When it got back to Chisu, he called.
Zarka immediately shoved on the K♥3♥3♠ flop for 460,000, which sent Chisu into the tank for quite some time. So much time passed that Chisu called the clock on himself and was given a 30-second countdown. With just a few seconds to go, Chisu called.
Fadi Zarka: J♠J♣
Danut Chisu: 10♠10♥
Chisu, now perhaps regretting his decision to call the clock on himself, had two outs to find with two attempts. However, the 7♠A♣ runout wasn't of any help, and he was left very short-stacked.
Cornelis Van Gent opened the cutoff to 80,000 and Jakub Michalak launched his stack of around 400,000 into the middle from the big blind. Van Gent snap-called.
Jakub Michalak: A♣10♠
Cornelis Van Gent: A♦A♥
Michalak was in a world of pain and needed to find some backdoor action when the flop fell J♣8♥3♦. A Q♦ did open up some of those backdoor opportunties, but the 4♣ on the river swiftly closed them, ending Michalak's run.