Dawid Smolka made his first Merit Poker final table in the spring of 2022, finishing seventh in the 2022 Retro Series $10,500 High Roller for $31,100. Over the next two years, Smolka established himself as one of the most consistent players in Merit Poker events, making four more final tables in Cyprus, including two third-place finishes. However, a victory had eluded him—until today. Smolka triumphed in the 2024 Gatsby Gala Series $2,200 Warm-Up at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino, overcoming start-of-day chip leader Daniele Grasso heads-up to claim his first Merit Poker title and the top prize of $179,650.
Smolka had a dominant performance from when cards were in the air, starting the day second in chips and entering the final table with the chip lead. Smolka only lost the chip lead for a few hands after the final table began, nearly going wire-to-wire en route to his victory.
| Place | Player | Coutnry | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dawid Smolka | Poland | $179,650 |
| 2 | Daniele Grasso | Italy | $125,500 |
| 3 | Hadi Khordbin | Iran | $80,300 |
| 4 | Bogdan Munteanu | Romania | $60,300 |
| 5 | Georges Chehade | Lebanon | $45,150 |
| 6 | Ruslan Bakhtiev | Russia | $36,200 |
| 7 | Sandra Cotescu | Romania | $30,150 |
| 8 | Ziad Menhem | Lebanon | $24,100 |
| 9 | Viktor Iarilov | Russia | $18,050 |
More Than $4.5 Million Guaranteed at Merit Poker Gatsby Gala Series
The day began with 14 players from a total field of 463 entrants. Victor Fryda began the day as one of the shorter stacks and was eliminated in one of the first hands of the day after losing a flip with ace-queen to VIktor Iarilov's pocket tens. Fellow start-of-day short stack Sandra Cotescu had a much better start, cracking Zhen Chen's pocket kings in the opening level. Chen couldn't recover and was out next in 13th, followed by Florian Guimond in 12th.
Smolka also found himself in trouble in the first level when he got involved in a colossal preflop confrontation against Julien Rouquet. Smolka held ace-queen and was up against Rouquet's ace-king in a pot worth nearly double the average stack at the time. Smolka would have been left with under five big blinds had he lost, but a miracle queen on the flop sent the pot in his direction while Rouquet was knocked out in brutal fashion. Rouquet was followed by Pouya Ranjehdel, who was eliminated in tenth place, making way for the nine-handed final table.
Bogdan Munteanu, who won this same event two years ago at the Merit Poker Vintage Series, got off to a hot start at the final table after being on the right side of a sickening cooler against Iarilov, who got his chips in good with pocket aces against Munteanu's ace-king. A Broadway straight on the river gave Munteanu the pot while Iarilov became the first to fall at the final table. Iarilov was followed out the door by Ziad Menhem and Cotescu in eight and seventh place respectively, both of whom were eliminated by Smolka who was beginning to pull away from the rest of the field.
Following Ruslan Bakhtiev's elimination in sixth place, the pace of play slowed down considerably. With both Georges Chehade and Grasso nursing short stacks at this point, the other three players tightened up considerably with the hopes of laddering up. Grasso quickly doubled up through Smolka to keep himself in contention, while Munteanu began slowly trending downwards. Chehade became the next to fall nearly two hours after Bakhtiev's elimination, getting his last eight big blinds in with eight-five suited and failing to catch up to Grasso's ace-ten. Munteanu was next to go almost immediately after, getting it in with pocket sevens only for Smolka to flop a full house with queen-jack.
Hadi Khordbin began the day as the shortest stack but very quickly found himself near the top of the counts after picking up aces and nearly tripling up. Khordbin was near the top of the counts for much of the day following that hand, entering the table just behind Smolka for the chip lead. His run finally ended in third place after falling to Grasso, with Smolka holding close to a 2:1 chip advantage over him going into heads-up play.
The heads-up duel between Smolka and Grasso was brief, with Grasso quickly being whittled down by Smolka over a series of small pots that saw Smolka extend his lead. In the final hand of the night, Smolka flopped a straight and called two bets from Grasso on the flop and turn. When Grasso checked the river Smolka put him to the test for his tournament life. Grasso called off with second pair only to see the bad news while Smolka took down the final pot of the night, the trophy and the top prize of $179,650.
Be sure to stay tuned to our continuing coverage of the $5,300 Gatsby Gala Series High Roller as well as the $3,300 Main Event which is set to begin on November 25.
