Jason Mercier’s career on the live tournament circuit is just 14 months young. But he has a list of accolades during that span that would make any professional green with envy.
Mercier won the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event Wednesday evening, besting a final table filled with online internet stars and bracelet winners Dario Alioto and An “The Boss” Tran. The 22-year-old has now won five tournaments in live arenas – including two European Poker Tour championships. With yesterday’s $237,415 payday he has now accumulated $3,069,194 in career earnings.
Mercier defeated internet megastar Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder heads up after trouncing a field of 809 entrants, believed to be the biggest live Pot-Limit Omaha tournament in poker history. Mercier held a vast chip lead after Day 1 and continued chipping up during Day 2 until he handed nearly half of his stack over to Burkholder in what was the biggest pot of the day.
That proved to be merely a dip in the road for the Ft. Lauderdale, FL native, as Mercier reconstructed his stack and went on to eliminate four players at the final table. On the final hand, all the money went in on the flop, with both Mercier and Burkholder holding trip jacks. Burkholder actually held the best hand with a higher kicker at the time, but a queen on the turn gave Mercier a full house. The river didn’t help Burkholder and Mercier was crowned the champion.
The victory felt especially nice for Mercier considering the way his first ever World Series of Poker went in 2008.
“Winning always feels good,” Mercier stated in a post-tournament interview. “Especially after last year. I played in 22 events. I went deep in just one of them. I finished 13th and that made me sick. I cashed three times and all three times I busted out with the worst (starting) hand, in marginal spots. I was really upset with how I played last year. Now, it feels great to win a gold bracelet, especially so early in the Series.”
“Every time I enter a poker tournament, I think I can win it,” Mercier said. “Of course, you have to win some key pots.”
Here’s how the final table of Event #5 played out:
1st Place: Jason Mercier – $237,462
2nd Place: Steven Burkholder – $146,748
3rd Place: Kevin Iacofano – $96,128
4th Place: Matthew Giannetti – $66,544
5th Place: Christopher Biondino – $48,533
6th Place: Jonathan Tare – $37,192
7th Place: Dario Alioto – $29,881
8th Place: An Van Tran – $25,122
9th Place: Vic Park – $22,052
A four-hour heads up match at the final table of the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud championship resulted in a victory for 74-year-old Freddie Ellis of Miami, FL. Ellis defeated a field that was loaded with 142 of the world’s best poker players, but it came down to him and Eric Drache for the gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $373,751.
Amazingly, it was the first World Series of Poker Event he had ever entered.
“This is the main reason I came to Vegas, to play in the World Championship of Seven-Card Stud,” Ellis said after his win.
Ellis made a fortune in the New York real estate market but is semi-retired now. He usually plays in the $600-$1,200 limit Mixed Game at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City. The typical game is an odd mix of Seven-Card Stud, Eight-or-Better, and No-Limit Hold’em.
Ellis (at age 74) and Drache (at age 66) meant the total ages of the two finalists was a combined 140 years. That is believed to be the most senior heads-up match in WSOP history for any open event (the Seniors Championship, not included). Drache served as the WSOP Tournament Director from the mid-1970s until 1987 and is one of the more colorful personalities to have been around the game.
Here are the results from the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship:
1st Place: Freddie Ellis – $373,751
2nd Place: Eric Drache – $231,013
3rd Place: Ville Wahlbeck – $152,914
4th Place: Max Pesactori- $107,958
5th Place: Hasan Habib – $80,968
6th Place: Ivan Schertzer – $64,297
7th Place: Greg “FBT” Mueller – $53,885
8th Place: Tim Phan – $47,532
9th Place: Jeff Lisandro – $36,266