Martirosyan advanced to Day 2 of the first Onyx Series event with the third-largest stack

The Onyx High Roller Series has kicked off in Northern Cyprus, and its first tournament was the Premiere with a $10,500 buy-in. Flight 1a drew 178 entries, and 27 players advanced to Day 2, already securing payouts from the guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000.

Third in the chip count was Artur Martirosyan. The Russian high roller's first attempt was unsuccessful — his flopped set ran into Hadi Khorbin's Broadway straight. But after re-entering, the four-time WSOP bracelet winner managed to build a big stack. A notable role in this was played by a hand against Atilla Saracoglu, in which Martirosyan with ♠️♥️ made a straight on the river ♥️♣️♥️♦️♠️ and took 350,000 chips.

The strangest hand of the day was between Timur Margolin and Aren Bezhanyan. Margolin decided that Bezhanyan had gone all-in on the turn ♥️♦️♣️♦️ and showed his ♣️♥️. However, the Armenian player still had one chip left, which he pushed to the center on the river ♠️. Margolin called, and Bezhanyan showed ♥️♦️ and took the pot.

The bubble boy was the Slovenian Anže Smajd with ♣️♥️, who lost to Sorel Mizzi's ♠️♦️ in a cooler on the board ♥️♣️♥️♣️♦️. Thanks to that hand, the Canadian picked up 520,000 chips and climbed to first in the chip count.

Even before the bubble, Jamie Dwan, Manig Loeser and Boris Kolev busted out of the tournament. They'll be able to re-enter in the two other starting flights. Flight 1b starts today at 13:00 MSK, and tomorrow at the same time flight 1c will begin.

Flight 1a chip count leaders, Onyx $10,500 Premiere:
1️⃣ Sorel Mizzi 🇨🇦 — 69 BB
2️⃣ Timur Margolin 🇮🇱 — 51 BB
3️⃣ Artur Martirosyan 🇷🇺 — 44 BB
4️⃣ Damir Gabdullin 🇷🇺 — 44 BB
5️⃣ Fahredin Mustafov 🇧🇬 — 44 BB
6️⃣ Daniel Gionoiu 🇨🇦 — 40 BB
7️⃣ Yuli Yuan 🇨🇳 — 38 BB
8️⃣ Chaner Gunesh 🇹🇷 — 35 BB
9️⃣ Aren Bezhanyan 🇦🇲 — 34 BB

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