Elie Farah Upsets Felipe Ketzer in Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event

8 months ago

The 2024 Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 Main Event has wrapped up astatine nan Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino, and it took astir 12 hours for a victor to look from nan 41 players who entered nan last day.

After nan particulate had settled Elie Farah was nan past subordinate standing, scoring 5 last array knockouts and past defeating Felipe Ketzer successful heads-up play to return location nan title and apical prize of $338,500.

Farah notably was down to his past 125,000 chips connected nan chromatic bubble during yesterday's Day 3, worthy conscionable 5 large blinds astatine that time. His erstwhile champion people earlier this comes from an eighth-place decorativeness successful nan 2022 Merit Poker Retro Series Main Event for $30,255. Today's triumph not only exceeds his erstwhile champion much than tenfold and triples his full unrecorded tourney earnings, which stood beneath $150,000.

Carmen Series Main Event Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryPrize (USD)

1	Elie Farah	Lebanon	$338,500
2	Felipe Ketzer	Brazil	$249,200
3	Dinesh Alt	Switzerland	$153,000
4	Bart Lybaert	Belgium	$113,100
5	Dmitry Gromov	Russian Federation	$84,700
6	Tahsin Cankurtaranli	Turkey	$68,400
7	Andrey Litvinov	Russian Federation	$56,600
8	Maher Achour	Tunisia	$45,100
9	Danut Chisu	Romania	$33,900

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Final Day Recap

The Main Event was different occurrence for Merit Poker, attracting 664 full entrants to make a prize excavation of $1,832,640, smashing nan $1,000,000 guarantee. Of those 664 entrants, only 41 players made it to nan last day. Some notable players to statesman nan last time pinch chips but fell earlier nan last array included Simone Andrian (28th - $10,445), Day 2 spot leader Fausto Tantillo (22nd - $13,560), and Andrey Pateychuk (20th - $15,205).

Bart Lybaert sewage disconnected to a basking commencement coming aft a sadistic runout saw him destruct Maciej Komorowski. Lybaert would soon surpass commencement of time spot leader Ketzer and rode that momentum to participate nan last array atop of nan counts. Not acold down him was Ketzer, who dealt a mortal blow to Umutcan Ipekoglu connected nan last array bubble to participate nan FT pinch nan second-largest stack.

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The Final Table

Play was very blimpish astatine nan start, pinch 2 players starting pinch very short stacks that forced nan different players to tread cautiously successful an effort to outlast them. It took complete an hr earlier Danut Chisu became nan first last array casualty courtesy of Ketzer. The Brazilian pro would besides declare nan adjacent 2 last array knockouts, pinch Maher Achour and Andrey Litvinov pursuing Chisu retired of nan doorway successful eighth and seventh spot respectively.

Farah was nether nan radar for astir of nan time coming and began nan last array pinch only nan sixth-largest stack. He made an fantabulous stream call pinch pouch kings against Lybaert soon aft nan last array began to double up his short stack and ne'er looked backmost from there, consecutively eliminating Tahsin Cankurtaranli, Dmitry Gromov and Lybaert.

Play betwixt Ketzer, Farah, and Dinesh Alt began pinch each 3 players very adjacent successful chips. After a short battle, Ketzer claimed astir of Alt's stack aft making apical brace connected nan stream and getting max value. Farah vanished disconnected Alt soon afterwards to group up heads-up play.

Ketzer, who placed 3rd successful nan Merit Poker Western Series Main Event this past January, began heads-up play pinch a humble lead but it would not beryllium agelong earlier Farah picked up apical brace and called disconnected Ketzer who had some a consecutive and a flush draw. Ketzer was near pinch crumbs aft missing his draw and bowed retired successful second-place while Farah claimed nan past cookware of nan night, nan trophy astatine nan apical prize of $338,500.