Florida-based poker pro Jason Mercier once again proved that he is one of the world’s best poker players after he topped the elite field of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $25,400 High Roller event to capture the amount of $652,800 of the entire prize pool.
The two-day event was held on August 17-18 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. A total of 83 entries paid the buy-in fee of $25,400 and thus created a prize pool of $2,075,000. Day 2 of the event saw nine players returning for the official final table. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that some of the world’s best poker pros took part in this final stage of the High Roller event, part of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open festival.
David Peters from Toledo, Ohio was the first to leave the final table. The player added $57,500 to his live tournament earnings, which currently amount to $6,735,678.
One-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Laak from San Francisco, California was eliminated in 8th place. His share of the prize pool totaled $74,400. Ashwin Sarin from Redmond, Washington finished 7th in the event to collect $93,400.
David Sands from Bozeman, Montana took 6th place to scoop $116,600. Up to now, the player has collected more than $7.5 million in various live tournaments.
Barry Hutter from Bradenton, Florida was eliminated in 5th place to receive $141,900 for his efforts. Earlier this summer, the player won his first WSOP gold bracelet after he topped the field of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout.
Ankush Mandavia from Atlanta, Georgia took home $186,200 for his 4th place in the High Roller event. Sean Winter from Jacksonville, Florida finished 3rd for $245,500. Last month, the player emerged victorious in the Belagio Cup XI $10,400 No-Limit Hold’em event for $562,772.
Winter’s elimination set the heads-up match between Mercier and Ian O’Hara from Boca Raton, Florida. It started with the latter holding the majority of chips in play. O’Hara had 4,850,000 over Mercier’s 3,455,000. The soon-to-be-champion quickly took the lead but did not maintain it for long. The players swung the chips back and forth for some time until one particularly important hand, after which Mercier had a 7-1 chip lead over his opponent.
On what turned out to be the last hand in play, O’Hara raised to 100,000 pre-flop and Mercier re-raised to 265,000. O’Hara then moved all-in and his opponent called. Mercier tabled [Jh][Jc] against O’Hara’s [Ah][Kc]. The board ran out [Ks][Jd][2c][4d][7c] and secured the eventual champion with three of a kind.
O’Hara added $391,700 to his poker bankroll for his runner up finish in the event. As for Mercier, he was paid the amount of $652,800. Thus, his live tournament earnings came close to the $16-million mark. It could be said that the player has had quite a successful and profitable summer. During the 46th edition of the WSOP, he captured his third-ever WSOP gold bracelet winning the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event for $633,357. He also finished 2nd in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, bagging up $572,989.
