Cyprus Classic Heats Up

German Perica Bukara continues his red hot month of August.

German Perica Bukara continues his red hot month of August now leading a star-studded final table at the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic High Roller event.

Bukara, who led in the early going of the PokerStars EPT Tallinn main event last week, finishing up 14^th just a week after making sixth at the Unibet Open main event in Prague, has almost twice the chips of anyone close heading into the nine-seat final.

However, a host of big names remain in contention from a starting field of 36 players.

David Benyamine built a monster stack on Day 1 of the $25k event and sits in a pack behind Bukara that includes 2010 WSOP bracelet winner and EPT Barcelona champ Carter Phillips, 2010 November Niner John Dolan, and Brit Andrew Feldman.

Meanwhile, among the shorter stacks are Full Tilt's own Jon "PearlJammer" Turner and Brit Sam Trickett.

Rounding out the final nine are the relatively unknown Ziv Caspi and Ori Miller.

The final five will get paid with first worth $392,000.

In the meantime, the $5,000+$400 Merit Cyprus Classic main event kicked off Friday with the first of two Day 1 flights.

The uniquely structured event allows players to rebuy or add-on once during the first five levels of play.

2010 November Niner John Racener was in the field when play began, as were EPT Grand Final champ Nicolas Chouity and WPT Festa al Lago winner Tommy Vedes.