Event #13: $5,300 High Roller of the Merit Poker Carmen Series has drawn to a close after three days of play. Belarusian Aliaksandr Hirs emerged as the last player standing from an initial field of 187 to capture the lion’s share of the $860,200 prize pool after defeating Fahredin Mustafov in a one-sided heads-up affair.

This marks Hirs’ first live tournament victory, with the $204,700 first-place prize adding a significant chunk to his career earnings of $396,757. However, it’s not his largest ever cash, which took place in August 2022 at EPT Barcelona when he finished third in the $2,200 ESPT High Roller for $284,668.

2023 Merit Poker Carmen Series Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

Although Hirs is relatively new to the live poker scene, he has been racking up a steady slate of impressive results online, a fact he reflected on after his victory.

“It’s a similar game [online] but also a different atmosphere”.

That different ambience is something Hirs points to as a reason why he is now playing more live events.

“It’s interesting to play with different players because you can see them. Online, you can only see the icon. Now you can see the players and their emotions. It’s really good”.

Bubble Play

A total of 28 players returned for the final day, meaning none had yet made it into the money, as the top 23 would secure the min-cash.

With several short stacks in the field, bubble play did not last long. Ultimately, Alexandru Papazian, Romania’s all-time money leader, was the individual unfortunate enough to burst the bubble after he got in his last few chips in with a dominated hand against Carlos Aoun and failed to improve. Everyone left was guaranteed $8,100, but with such big money up top, nobody would be happy heading home just yet.

Final Table Action

The tournament average stack rarely strayed above the 35 big blind mark and was often significantly below that point. As a result, the final table was set not too long into the day after Sakis Adrianopoulos jammed his ace-four right into Anton Ionel’s ace-jack.

With that, the remaining nine took their seats to grind out what would be a relatively long final table. Lev Kydatov was the short stack entering the final table, and it came as no surprise that he was first out the door when his big slick failed to hold against the ace-jack held by Simeon Spasov.

Next to head to the exit was the congenial Egor Romaniuk. He flopped top-top to only to see a rampant Hirs turn over ladies for the overpair. Not long after, Aoun hit the showers in seventh place, as he was felled in a blind on blind encounter with Ionel.

It took some time for the next player to go, but eventually, Ionel, whose stack had been dwindling away for some time, lost a flip against Mustafov to send him to the rail in sixth place. Just a few hands later, Eduard Barsegian fell to the wayside, after being unable to overcome Hirs’ tens.

Spasov displayed great skill throughout the day and was near or at the top of the leaderboard for a good portion of the final table. But after taking a few bad beats, he got his remaining chips in with jack-nine against the eight-seven of Hirs, who paired up to scoop the pot.

Start of day chip leader Ryan Mandara coasted for much of the day but succumbed to a seemingly unstoppable Hirs after check-jamming his flush draw on the flop and failing to hit.

That elimination set up a heads-up showdown between Hirs and Mustafov. Hirs entered with a sizable chip advantage, one that he never relinquished. Though Mustafov put up a good fight, it was Hirs’ day. After flopping top pair, Hirs bet-called a shove from Mustafov, who had an open-ended straight draw. The draw failed to come in, and that was all she wrote.

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Merit Poker Carmen Series Schedule