At the age of 29, Jason Mercier has already established himself as one of poker’s big names with three former WSOP victories and an EPT one, among a number of other poker titles. A few hours ago, the Florida resident added yet another precious WSOP gold piece to his collection. Mercier bested the tough field of the 2016 WSOP $10,000 2-7 Lowball Championship, an event he has long wanted to take down. Apart from his fourth-ever gold bracelet, the player also collected a top prize of $273,335.
The 2-7 Lowball was played over three days, starting June 11. The tournament attracted 100 entries, with some of these being multiple gold bracelet winners. It is also interesting to note that the event drew a bit more attention than it did during last year’s edition of the Series. In 2015, as many as 77 entries took part in the event.
This year, entries created a prize pool of $940,000 and the money was distributed to the top 15 finishers. Poker pros Daniel Negreanu, Anthony Zinno, and Brian Hastings were among the players to finish into the money. However, all three could not make it to the final table.
Mercier came into the official nine-handed final table as the chip leader and the only player beyond the one-million mark. The player defeated quite a tough table, comprised of four former gold bracelet winners and other experienced WSOP players.
Canadian Mike Watson was Mercier’s last obstacle to his victory road. Watson has considerable experience in the Series. He has cashed in 41 events so far but has never won a gold bracelet, although he has come really close to this several times.
On what turned out to be the last hand in play, Mercier had about two times more chips than his opponent. And here is how the hand itself was played:
Watson raised to 100,000 from the button and Mercier called from the big blind. Both players drew one and Mercier checked. Watson bet 200,000 to see his opponent check-raise all in for 1,550,000. Watson needed a minute to consider his next move and decided to call.
Mercier turned over [8x][6x][5x][4x][2x] against Watson’s [9x][7x][4x][3x][2x], thus winning his fourth WSOP title and depriving his heads-up opponent from the chance to eventually win his first one. Watson took home a consolation prize of $168,936.
Lamar Wilkinson, known to be one of the California Grand Casino owners, took 3rd place in the tournament for $120,025. David Grey from Henderson, Nevada finished 4th for a payout of $86,302. Benny Glaser from the UK was paid $62,810 for his 5th place in the event.
Stephen Chidwick, the other Englishman at the final table, took 6th place for $46,277. Alex Luneau from France collected a payout of $34,522 for finishing 7th in the event. Herezel Zalewski from Houston, Texas took 8th place in the tournament, good for $26,078. Jesse Martin was the first player to leave the nine-handed final table. His payout amounted to $19,953.
