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Ohad Geiger Credits Five Friends After Winning First Merit Title for $240,000
When the final table of the $3,500 Merit Poker Cup at the 2026 Merit Poker Noir Series reached its latter stages, eventual champion Ohad Geiger was joined on the rail by five friends. According to Geiger, their arrival changed everything.
"The minute they came, it was like everything went good. I don't know how," Geiger told PokerNews after the victory. "The minute five friends came here, it's like all in, I win, all in I win, all in I win, and that's it."
Whether it was luck or simply the confidence that comes from having a rail behind you, the Israeli seemed unstoppable from that point onwards as he completed his rise from the middle of the pack to take the trophy, and the $240,000 first-place prize, from the $1,260,032 prize pool.
The result was Geiger's first Merit Poker win and the largest score of his career, but it almost never happened. Primarily a cash game player, Geiger entered the event on a whim after deciding to mix things up.
"I usually play cash, so I said, 'Okay, I will mix it,'" Geiger said.
That decision turned into a three-day run through a field of 428 entries, culminating in a heads-up victory over Dmitrii Kravchenko inside the Merit Royal Diamond Casino & Spa.
$3,500 Merit Poker Cup Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohad Geiger | Israel | $240,000 |
| 2 | Dmitrii Kravchenko | Ukraine | $168,000 |
| 3 | Dzhavanshyr Omarov | Ukraine | $115,000 |
| 4 | Yilu Yuan | China | $80,300 |
| 5 | Adrian State | Romania | $60,500 |
| 6 | Timur Mukhamedaminov | Uzbekistan | $49,000 |
| 7 | Pedro Ingles | Spain | $40,500 |
| 8 | Vyacheslav Kardash | Russian Federation | $32,400 |
| 9 | Yurii Zabrodotskyi | Ukraine | $24,432 |
Looking back on the tournament, Geiger described a journey filled with swings.
"Till the dinner break I had a very good stack too, then I had like a smaller one," Geiger explained. "I had like two or three times average and then I went back to average. Then it moved a bit up and down again."
Geiger Turns Cash Game Detour Into Merit Title
Everyone's first aim when they arrived was to make the money, and it didn't take long for almost all of them to achieve that feat. The bubble burst after just eight hands when Selahaddin Bedir got his chips into the middle holding cowboys in a blind-on-blind confrontation against Pavel Shchitnikov's suited ace-queen. Bedir remained ahead until an ace landed on the river, locking up a payday for the remaining 63 players.
Once the bubble burst, the eliminations came quickly as the remaining players all locked up a payday and turned their attention towards the final table. Among the more notable names to depart before the final two table redraw were two-time bracelet winner Simone Andrian, former Merit Poker Dolce Vita champion Xiaosheng Zheng, Sukhrat Massimov, Felipe Ketzer, Ali Al-Kubasi, Evgenii Chernyi, and Giorgiy Skhulukhiya.
Geiger picked up one of his biggest pots of the day with 14 players remaining when his ace-king held against the ace-queen of Kravchenko. The hand moved Geiger back to around average, a position he maintained until the final table was set.. Atilla Saracoglu's event came to an end in tenth place as the final-table bubble boy after his ace-jack was overtaken by the queen-eight of Yurii Zabrodotskyi, leaving the final table set for the Merit Poker Cup.
Geiger Fights Back
Vyacheslav Kardash began the final table as chip leader, with Adrian State, Zabrodotskyi, and Yilu Yuan not far behind, while Geiger occupied a position in the middle of the pack. Despite several players returning with short stacks, it took almost two hours for the first elimination to arrive as double-up after double-up kept the final table intact.
State was among the first players to add to his stack, while Yuan took a stand against the Romanian professional to take his spot at the top. Zabrodotskyi was eventually the first player to depart before Kardash followed him to the rail in cruel fashion after his pocket queens ran into Yuan's pocket kings.
By the time Pedro Ingles and Timur Mukhamedaminov had also been eliminated, Yuan held more than half of the chips in play and appeared to be firmly in control with five players remaining.
Geiger's road to victory, however, was only just beginning. A short while after the last break, Geiger jammed ace-ten on the button and was snapped off by Yuan, who tabled pocket nines. After failing to improve on either the flop or turn, Geiger drilled a ten on the river to double up and stop Yuan from running away with the tournament.
After the victory, Geiger admitted that fortune had favoured him at a few crucial moments.
"I got lucky in the spots you need to get lucky," Geiger said. "I won ace-ten against nines. And then a few more spots, and it was very nice to be lucky at the final table."
As Geiger himself acknowledged, however, those moments are often what separate the champion from the rest of the field.
"In the end you need it, you have to for winning a tournament."
State lost a few all-ins in succession, most of them races, and was left as the short stack. Geiger soon delivered the finishing blow when his ace-five improved to a flush on the turn to send the Romanian to the rail in fifth place and close the gap on Yuan.
Geiger Moves Into the Driver's Seat
Then came the biggest pot of the tournament. With four players remaining, Yuan and Geiger sat first and second in chips. Geiger opened the action and Yuan moved all in, covering the entire table. Geiger quickly called with pocket tens and found himself up against Yuan's suited ace-six. In a pot containing around 60% of the chips in play, Geiger rivered a full house to put himself firmly in the driver's seat.
Kravchenko eventually eliminated Yuan in fourth place in a coinflip before Geiger sent Dzhavanshyr Omarov to the rail just a few hands later. Omarov limp-jammed from the small blind with queen-jack, but Geiger quickly called with big slick and held to set up heads-up play.
Geiger Gets it Done
Geiger entered heads-up play holding roughly a 5:1 chip lead over Kravchenko, but the Ukrainian had already shown throughout the day that he wasn't afraid of battling from a short stack. He managed to hang around during the early exchanges and even chipped away at Geiger's lead, but the Israeli found the answer to it.
In the end, Geiger needed only one hand to finish the job.
Geiger completed on the button before Kravchenko raised from the big blind. Geiger called, and Kravchenko followed up with a continuation-bet on the king-queen-deuce flop. When a third spade appeared on the turn, Kravchenko moved all in.
Geiger picked up his chips, shrugged, and then put in the call for his first opportunity to win the title.
Kravchenko sheepishly showed eight-deuce for a pair and a flush draw, while Geiger revealed queen-ten for second pair. The river was a blank, bringing an end to Kravchenko's run in second place and crowning Geiger as the inaugural Merit Poker Noir Cup champion.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as coverage from the Merit Poker Noir Series continues with Day 2 of the High Roller, before full coverage of the Main Event gets underway.