The Merit Poker Western Series was held at the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus, with the Main Event offering a $1,500,000 guarantee with a buy-in of $3,300.
The Main Event brought in a record 791 entries, bringing the prizepool to $2,183,160. The $377,500 prize awaited the winner and the top 9 players battled it out on the final day. They were led by Latvian player Renars Skanis with a stack of 14,600,000.
In the end, Renars had to settle for 8th place and a reward of $50,500. We witnessed a deal when the last three players played, but his numbers weren't released, so we don't know who took home how much.
What we do know is that after the ensuing playoffs, the winner was Italian pro Umberto Ruggeri. He has tournament results from 2019 and along with this win, he has probably already surpassed the $1 million mark in tournament winnings.
In second place was Romanian pro Mihai Niste, who along with this prize has surpassed the $2 million mark in live tournament winnings.
| 1 | Umberto Ruggeri | Italy | $377,500 |
| 2 | Mihai Niste | Romania | $251,000 |
| 3 | Muhtar Taysi | Turkey | $180,300 |
| 4 | Mario Colavita | Italy | $130,200 |
| 5 | Xiaosheng Zheng | China | $94,600 |
| 6 | Alexander Sokolovsky | Serbia | $75,900 |
| 7 | Ryan Mandara | UK | $63,200 |
| 8 | Renars Skanis | Latvia | $50,500 |
| 9 | Edward Quinn | Jersey | $37,950 |
*The first three places in the table are the original pre-deal payouts
Source - Merit, Pokernews