Serbian Wins Merit Poker Carmen Series Main Event

The 2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 no-limit maintain’em essential occasion attracted 881 complete entries throughout 4 beginning flights, simply surpassing the $1.5 million assure to finish with a closing prize pool of $2,431,560.

Serbia’s Nenad Dukic in the end walked away with the biggest piece of that complete, incomes $401,000 because the champion. This was a brand new career-high rating for Dukic, whose earlier high payday got here when he positioned fifth in a €3,000 thriller bounty occasion on the 2022 European Poker Tour Prague competition. He now has almost $723,000 in lifetime cashes to his identify.

In addition to the cash and the {hardware}, Dukic additionally scored 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year factors for the win. This was his first POY-qualified rating of 2025, nevertheless it alone was sufficient to maneuver him inside the highest 60 within the general standings offered by Global Poker.

And right here is the picture of the #MainEvent Final Table. One of them would be the champion at the moment. The solely query is—WHO? pic.twitter.com/k3MgkmPoC9

— Merit Poker (@meritpokerlive) March 24, 2025

The closing day started with 9 gamers remaining and Dukic within the lead. Leonid Orman (ninth – $39,600) was the primary to fall, along with his J-10 suited unable to beat the pocket queens of Dukic.

The subsequent knockout pitted the J8 of Daniil Kiselev in opposition to the AA of Soraya Estrada. Kiselev hit a jack on the flop, however failed to enhance any additional and was eradicated in eighth place ($52,200).

Maher Achour’s run got here to an finish when he referred to as off the final of his quick stack with backside pair, solely to lose to the second pair of Mikhail Zavoloka. Achour earned $65,700 for his seventh-place displaying.

Chady Ojeil’s final stand noticed him name off with high pair, solely to be proven pocket aces by Dukic. Oheil took residence $80,500 because the sixth-place finisher.

A basic race state of affairs spelled the tip of Han Han’s match, along with his Ok-Q unable to beat the pocket jacks of Dukic. Han secured $99,050 for making it all the way down to the highest 5.

Soraya Estrada misplaced the vast majority of her stack when her queens and sevens clashed with the queens and tens of Dukic. She was left with fewer than two large blinds after getting all-in on the flip and failing to spike a seven on the river. Estrada was eradicated in fourth place not lengthy after that, incomes $132,100 for her efforts. This was the primary six-figure rating for the Spanish participant. Her earlier high payday was the $52,787 she earned for a 76th-place end within the 2023 WSOP Online $5,000 essential occasion.

Mikhail Zavoloka acquired the final of his stack in with A-Q main the A-8 of Dunkic, however the Serbian flopped an open-ended straight draw and acquired there on the flip. A clean on the river despatched Zavoloka to the rail in third place with $185,250. This was the fourth-largest rating of his profession. It introduced his lifetime earnings to almost $2.2 million.

With that the heads-up showdown was set between Dukic (62,000,000) and Akin Tuna (26,000,000). It didn’t take lengthy for Dukic to transform his lead into the title. On the second hand of the match he shoved from the button with 33 and Tuna referred to as all-in with A9. The flop got here down 322 to offer Dunkic a full home proper off the bat. The 9 on the flip gave Tuna some hope, however the 7 river meant that he was formally knocked out in second place ($265,000). The Turkish participant is approaching $1.8 million in general cashes, with this being his third-largest windfall but.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: Merit Poker.