The ESPN.com poker news show “Inside Deal” made its return this week with an episode emanating from Mohegan Sun, site of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT). High Roller Bounty Shootout champ Jason Mercier joined the set.
The episode was taped following the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event. Mercier, a member of Team PokerStars Pro, gave his take on the $5,000 buy-in tournament: “It was a really good event. It had a nice turnout and a pretty good field. I really enjoyed it. Overall, I thought it was very well put together.” Mercier went on to bank $450,000 in the High Roller tournament following his “Inside Deal” appearance.
The NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event drew 716 players, while its predecessor at the Venetian attracted a starting grid of 872. On the 18% drop in attendance, “Inside Deal” host Bernard Lee told viewers, “There’s no concern whatsoever. Look at the numbers: Over 700 players, almost $3.3 million in the prize pool. We haven’t seen those numbers outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) summer event in years. I don’t think there are any issues at all.”
Dominating the headlines in recent weeks has been a rumored grand jury investigation of Full Tilt Poker. A story appeared in the Financial Times singling out Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, leading “Inside Deal” to seek the opinion of Casino City Times’ Vin Narayanan: “You’re going after people for whom this is a profession and who have a political, moral, and ethical stake in all of this. This is a really risky prosecution. This is one of those things that will actually go to court.” Narayanan speculated that the proceedings could span four or five years.
Taking down the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event was Vanessa Selbst, whom “Inside Deal” host Laura Lane noted was the first female winner of a major tournament since Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad took down the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event. ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman interviewed Selbst, who admitted, “It feels amazing. I definitely didn’t expect it. I joked on the first day that I was going to win this tournament, so it feels incredible.” Selbst attends law school at Yale.
Selbst turned in a veritable wire-to-wire run at the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event title during the tournament’s latter stages. On her success down the stretch, which led to a $750,000 payday, Selbst told Feldman, “I have experience being aggressive. I am sometimes too aggressive when I don’t have a big enough stack for it. I think it’s being selectively aggressive.” Selbst edged out Michael Beasley heads-up in a final table that also included Scott Seiver, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, and Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar.
Also playing out was the first ever Inside Deal Prop Bet Challenge between Feldman and PokerStars pro Chad Brown. The loser of the three-event contest had to don a t-shirt with the other person’s picture on it. The first competition was landing a poker chip closest to the rail at the other end of a table. Brown won and jumped out to a 1-0 lead after a photo finish. Then, chip stacking was the name of the game. Feldman created a tower of 67 chips in 30 seconds, while Brown piled up 63 to force a third prop bet. In the rubber match, Feldman and Brown flicked playing cards into a plastic container. Brown landed two in one minute, while Feldman hit three in 18 seconds.
Finally, Mercier, who hails from Florida, has had a bevy of success outside of the United States. His signature win came in the 2008 European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo Main Event. Five months later, he made the final table at EPT Barcelona. In October 2008, he won the High Roller event at the European Poker Championships in London. Last year, Mercier finished fourth in the WSOP Europe Main Event.
On his success away from U.S. soil, Mercier told the “Inside Deal” crew, “I think the play has generally been a little bit softer than over here in the U.S. I easily could have won a bunch of things in the U.S. and ran really badly in Europe. For some reason, every time I cross The Pond, I somehow win something.” Mercier also revealed that he was stabbed in the back with a beer bottle and spent two days in the hospital following his EPT San Remo win after getting in a fight with locals at a bar.
Catch “Inside Deal” exclusively on ESPN.com.
