Since early on in the 2016 World Series of Poker, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Jason Mercier was going to claim the WSOP Player of the Year (POY) title and while he did, it was not until yesterday, that he could say the award was officially his. With Paul Volpe’s ouster from the 2016 WSOP Main Event on Day 6, Jason Mercier clinched the WSOP Player of the Year.
Mercier, to put it bluntly, was out of his mind during this World Series. He cashed eleven times and put the pressure on everyone else to try to catch him within just the first two weeks of the WSOP. In the span of a week, he won the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship, was the runner-up in the $10,000 Seven Card Razz Championship, and won the $10,000 HORSE Championship. Other players had nice runs as the WSOP went on, but realistically, there was no way anybody was going to catch Mercier.
Mercier finished with 2,195.57 Player of the Year points, based on the Global Poker Index’s revamped points system. Paul Volpe was a distant second with 1,923.66, while Max Silver, who was also eliminated from the Main Event on Sunday, ended with 1,687.67.
Volpe finished in the Main Event in 29th place, earning 449.19 points in the POY standings. In order to overtake Jason Mercier, Volpe would have needed to win the entire tournament, a feat which not only would have earned him $8 million and worldwide fame, but also 782.81 POY points. Had he finished second, he would have fallen just a few points short of Mercier’s total.
One person who can be happy for Mercier and at the same time relieved is Vanessa Selbst, who came this close to owing him a huge chunk of change. In a well-publicized drunken prop bet, Selbst gave Mercier 180:1 odds on him winning three bracelets this summer. Since he didn’t pull off the feat, he owes Selbst $10,000. If he would have nabbed three, she would have owed him a stunning $1.8 million.
And as mentioned, he came extremely close, with two wins and a second place finish in a week. Just days after his second bracelet win of 2016, he made another final table, likely causing Selbst to sweat profusely, but he bowed out in 8th place. Hell, he followed THAT up with an eleventh place finish just a couple days later. Just six players have ever won three bracelets in a single year and only five have ever won them all at the traditional World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
It seems that the Player of the Year who won two bracelets, made four final tables, and cashed eleven times should be the biggest money earner at the WSOP (prior to the Main Event), but surprisingly, Mercier is only fifteenth, which just under $1 million in earnings at the 2016 WSOP. Fedor Holz tops that list thanks to his $5 million win of the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop.
