Boris Kolev Wins $1,000,000 As Merit Poker Classic Millions Champion

The most important pay leap of a poker match is continuously the one between the champion and the runner-up. The heads-up showdown on the 2025 Advantage Poker Basic Hundreds of thousands $10,000 championship occasion featured an particularly huge swing, because the $1,000,000 assured high prize meant a $700,000 distinction between profitable and ending second.

Two-time World Sequence of Poker bracelet winner Boris Kolev was the participant that got here away with the title and the seven-figure high payout. The Bulgarian defeated Mehdi Chaoui of Morocco heads-up. Kolev had entered the heads-up showdown with almost an 8:1 chip benefit. Chaoui was in the end knocked out because the runner-up, incomes $300,000 for his efforts.

This was the primary million-dollar payday for Kolev, who now has almost $5.5 million in profession match earnings to his identify. Previous to this victory, his high rating had been the $511,184 he was awarded on the champion of the $5,000 no-limit maintain’em eight-max occasion on the 2021 WSOP.

The occasion ran from April 9-13 on the Advantage Royal Diamond Lodge On line casino & Spa in Cyprus. The prize pool of $1,950,000 was paid out throughout the highest 9 finishers, with the min-cash clocking in at $35,400. Oleg Semionov was eradicated on the bubble, along with his flopped straight being outrun by the rivered flush of Aleksandr Kirichenko.

Outdoors of Kolev, Russia’s Andrey Pateychuk was essentially the most achieved participant on the last desk. The World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour champion got here into this occasion with greater than $5.3 million in profession cashes. Pateychuk finally bowed out in seventh place ($55,000), along with his A-8 working into the pocket tens of Aleksandr Kirichenko.

#MillionsEvent Day3Blinds are 300K/600K/600KAverage stack 31M7/212

On the final hand earlier than the break.

Andrey Pateychuk from the small blind shoved 10800K. On the massive bling with 75M Aleksandr Kirichenko made the decision!

Andrey Pateychuk A 8Aleksandr Kirichenko 10 10… pic.twitter.com/qRdcw7jTwk

— Advantage Poker (@meritpokerlive) April 13, 2025

Kolev scored all the knockouts from 5 gamers down to 1, which accounted for his sizable lead getting into heads-up play. Within the last hand, Kolev shoved from the button with AQ and Chaoui referred to as with A3. The board ran out 55478 and Kolev’s queen kicker participant to earn him the pot and the title.