329 players made their way to the island nation of Cyprus this past weekend to take part in the opening event of the World Poker Tour’s 11th Season. The WPT Merit Cyprus Classic is being played on the Turkish side of the isle, and featured a $4,400 buy-in and two starting days with reentries allowed on Day 1b, with 165 and 167 players registering on Day 1a and Day 1b respectively. The total prize-pool for the tournament reached $1,212,694 when all was said and done.

After three days of play the field has been pared-down to just two tables of nine players, with Canadian poker pro Erik Cajelais leading the way into Day 4, which will see the field play down to the official WPT final table of six players. Along with Cajelais, poker fans may also recognize the names of Robert Mizrachi (brother of Mike “The Grinder’ Mizrachi, who also made the trip for the tournament) as well as Party Poker Pro Marvin Rettenmaier.

Cajelais is one of only two players who passed the 1-million chip mark at the end of Day 3, with 1,190,000, along with Artur Voskanyon who finished with 1,090,000 chips at the end of play. The pair is followed very closely by Sam el Sayed and his 950,000 chips, while Robert Mizrachi is in the middle of the pack with 586,000 chips, and the German pro Rettenmaier is one of the shorter stacks with just 211,000 chips heading into Day 4.

Here is a look at the seating assignments and chip-counts for all 18 players still in the hunt for the first WPT title of Season XI:

Table 1

* Seat 1: Walid Bou Habib – 986,000 chips

* Seat 2: Erik Cajelais – 1,190,000 chips

* Seat 3: Husnu Sincar – 358,000 chips

* Seat 4: Ran Azor – 893,000 chips

* Seat 5: Joseph El Khoury – 180,000 chips

* Seat 6: Tolga Demirel – 265,000 chips

* Seat 7: Victor Paraschiv – 483,000 chips

* Seat 8: Julien Ehrhardt – 194,000 chips

* Seat 9: Artur Voskanyan – 1,035,000 chips

Table 2

* Seat 1: Andrey Shatilov – 686,000 chips

* Seat 2: Robert Mizrachi – 586,000 chips

* Seat 3: Eddy Maksoud – 564,000 chips

* Seat 4: Kiryl Radzivonau – 352,000 chips

* Seat 5: Kemal Sevevi – 311,000 chips

* Seat 6: Aram Vartevanyan – 159,000 chips

* Seat 7: Sam El Sayed – 950,000 chips

* Seat 8: Marvin Rettenmaier – 212,000 chips

* Seat 9: Gilboa Yossi – 464,000 chips

All of the remaining players have made the money, but the real money (nearly $300k) is reserved for the winner of the tournament. Here is a look at the payouts for the top 9 finishers:

1. $287,784

2. $184,020

3. $118,360

4. $87,610

5. $65,770

6. $52,590

7. $43,690

8. $35,020

9. $26,240

 

 

Tags: Canadian poker, Demirel, Ehrhardt, Erik Cajelais, Island Nation, Joseph El Khoury, Leading The Way, Party Poker, Play The Field, Poker Fans, Poker Pro, Prize Pool, Rettenmaier, robert mizrachi, Seat 6, Seating Assignments, Turkish Side, Walid, World Poker Tour, WPT

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