With only about two weeks to go (and another 19 or so tournaments in the canister), poker professional Jason Mercier is threatening to make the race for the 2016 World Series of Poker Player of the Year a runaway.
Mercier has been a runaway train since the start of the 2016 WSOP, fired in part by the prop bets he made on whether he would win three bracelets during the run of the Series (many people, including his largest bet with Vanessa Selbst, have allegedly bought out of that one now!). Within the first two weeks of the schedule, Mercier had racked up two wins, a runner-up finish and another final table spot on his way to earning 2121.69 points. Along with the current lead on the POY table, Mercier has also accumulated 10 cashes for a grand total of $958,518.
To demonstrate how much of a crushing lead Mercier has in the WSOP POY competition, another double bracelet winner is currently sitting in the second position. The United Kingdom’s Benny Glaser has picked up two bracelets (both in Omaha Hi/Low Split-8 or Better, oddly enough) but has only been able to put four more cashes together with that achievement. Thus, Glaser’s 1352.3 points lags far behind what Mercier has put on the board to this mark of the WSOP.
Demonstrating it isn’t always about finishing first in a tournament (but, let’s be honest, it really is), only three of the next eight places are covered by players who have been able to corral a 2016 WSOP bracelet. Max Silver, for example, has been cashed in nine events so far at the WSOP, with none of them being a finish higher than 12th place. Those finishes have given him enough points to capture the third slot on the standings with 1345.39 points, however (and watch how close the POY race would be if you removed Mercier’s outlier performance).
2016 WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy from Belgium has added a second place finish to his resume (with the two tournaments separated by a week and in two different disciplines, Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball and Six-Handed Texas Hold’em) to push himself into the fourth place position with 1280.91 points, with the Top Five rounded out by the U. K.’s Stephen Chidwick (1278.09). Canada’s Mike ‘SirWatts’ Watson (1273.05 points), Randy Ohel (1256.91), bracelet winners Loren Klein (1234.78) and Martin Kozlov (1214.87) and Michael Semenov (1214.69) finish off the Top Ten.
Just to repeat Mercier’s dominance: he currently has a 769.39-point lead over Glaser; the gap between Glaser and the 10th place Semenov is only 137.61 points.
Looking deeper into the POY rankings, John Monnette has been able to push his way into the 11th place slot, lurking less than 10 points behind Semenov with his 1204.77 points. Justin Bonomo is having another impressive WSOP with his 1197.99 points, but it is Ryan Laplante who might just steal the show. Laplante has been able to rack up 10 cashes so far at the WSOP, with one of them a bracelet win (Event #12, the $565 Pot Limit Omaha tournament) and sits in 13th place with 1192.58 points. More importantly for Laplante, he is one cash away from tying the record in one summer in Las Vegas and three away from tying the record in one calendar year (one of the many players who are benefitting from the expanded payout schedule at the 2016 WSOP). The rest of the Top 20 has Paul Volpe (1185.71 points), Daniel Strelitz (1165.98), Eli Elezra (1143.19), Matt Stout (1118.55), Dan Kelly (1115.56), James Obst (1110.44) and Brandon Shack-Harris (1102.54) in 14th through 20th places, respectively (the third double bracelet winner of the 2016 WSOP, Ian Johns, isn’t seen until 22nd place).
To reiterate, remember Mercier’s huge edge on Glaser (769.39 points)…then consider that Glaser’s lead over Shack-Harris is only 249.76 points.
It is going to be pretty difficult to catch Mercier, but there’s still time to achieve the feat. With two more weeks of tournaments in Las Vegas – and the 2016 WSOP Asia/Pacific on the horizon (a time and schedule have not yet been announced) – there will be events that can put some points on the board. If Mercier continues on this blitzkrieg, however, the WSOP Player of the Year may be decided before the cards even hit the air in Australia, let alone the “November Nine” final table for the WSOP Championship Event.
