Jason Mercier won his fourth career World Series of Poker gold bracelet Tuesday morning outlasting an extremely seasoned field of 99 other players in Event #16: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. The victory was worth $273,335.
Now, even though the first place prize was more than a quarter million dollars, it sounds like Mercier likely won a lot more from outside sources. Just two weeks ago, he put out a tweet looking for anyone to bet against him winning a bracelet this summer, giving him 3-to-1 odds. Prop bets like this are very common at the WSOP and are a way for players to have more fun rooting for and against each other, as well as providing another avenue for gambling. Mercier did get some takers, but has not said how many and for how much money, but he did say in his post-match interview that the amount he won from the side bets is “more than the first place prize for this event.”
Mercier defeated Mike Watson heads-up for the title. On the final hand, Watson raised on the button and Mercier called. Both men drew one card and proceeded to get it all-in, Watson’s tournament life on the line. Watson showed 9-7-4-3-2, a solid hand, but Mercier revealed 8-6-5-4-2 to give him a lower hand, the pot, and the tournament victory.
As mentioned, this was Jason Mercier’s fourth career WSOP bracelet. He previously nabbed jewelry in Pot-Limit Omaha events in both 2009 and 2011 and then won a No-Limit Hold’em event last year.
In an interview with the WSOP after his win, Mercier said this win only ranked below his first one.
“I’d say this was the second best of the four,” he remarked. “The first one you get is always the most special. But I have been wanting to win this event for a long time and to get here against this kind of field was really nice. It also helps that I had lots of side action riding on winning a bracelet this year.”
This fourth bracelet is now getting Mercier close to elite territory in terms of all-time bracelet winners. Amongst the others that have four are Robert Mizrachi, Max Pescatori, Huck Seed, Amarillo Slim Preston, Puggy Pearson, Bobby Baldwin, and Bill Boyd. One more and he will be tied with the likes of Stu Ungar, John Juanda, Scotty Nguyen, and Allen Cunningham. Of course, he still has approximately a lifetime to go to catch Phil Hellmuth, who has fourteen WSOP bracelets.
Needless to say, Jason Mercier is one of the best tournament players in the world. The PokerStars blog even called back to five years ago, when Mercier talked about his WSOP goals after winning his second bracelet:
It’s important to me for people to think I am one of the best. I think I am getting to that level, if I am not already there. Obviously, winning tournaments and winning WSOP bracelets just adds to that. I feel like if I win a third one, it will do even more for me. I’m ready to play in as many World Series of Poker events as I can to get as many gold bracelets as I can.
Mercier now has over $3.8 million in WSOP tournament earnings and $16.7 million in live tournament winnings overall.
