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Jason Mercier wins in Italy

April 6, 2008

Jason MercierThe latest stop in the European Poker Tour saw 21 year old Jason Mercier pick up the €869,000 first prize after overcoming 700 other players … and then admitting that he nearly didn’t play in the event at all.

The 21 year old American maths teacher was on the verge of selling his seat at the San Remo casino in Italy to meet some online friends in Amsterdam.

“Two of my online friends said they were going but they weren’t going to play the event,” he explained. They said ‘you can meet up with us’ and I thought I’d screw it and go. They’re very good friends now.”

Luckily Mercier decided to change his mind at the last minute and play in what was only his second live tournament having qualified for the €5,000 seat through an online Pokerstars satellite. He arrived at the final table in third place with a stack worth just under 1,600,000 and had to contend with seven other players from five different countries before he was able to walk away as the latest EPT champion.

Seat Player Country Stack
1 Gregory Genovese Italy 694,000
2 William Thorsson Sweden 418,000
3 Eric Koskas France 449,000
4 Jason Mercier United States 1,591,000
5 Anthony Lellouche France 1,192,000
6 Dario Minieri Italy 1,832,000
7 Dag Palovic Slovakia 585,000
8 Marcus Bower United States 278,000

Marcus Bower was the first player to go out, having started the final table as the short stack. His pocket fours failed to hold up against Lellouche’s AJ and so the American went home €76,700 better off.

Shortly after that Dag Palovic was found himself walking away from the table when his pocket queens fell to a set of threes being held by Dario Minier. The prize for seventh place was €111,800.

Next to hit the rail was William Thorsson. He moved all in with A Q and was called by Mercier who had him dominated with A K. The board offered no additional help, and so the Swede bust out of the tournament with €140,600 to show for his efforts.

Mercier then increased the size of his stack yet further by knocking out Genovese, who unsuprisingly had picked up a large following from the partisan crowd. The Italian fell to a pair of Aces and had to be content with a relatively short journey home and a cheque for €188,500

By this time Mercier was on a roll and seemed to have found his zone. Fellow Pokerstars qualifier Eric Koskas was eliminated in fourth place (€223,600) when he tried to bluff Mercier with nothing more than a 10 high. Mercier read his opponent well though, and after a couple of minutes of consideration, he made the right decision by calling and turned over a 5 to show the samllest pair.

Much to the disappointment of the crowd, Dario Minieri was the next player to fall, simultaneously ending Italian interest in the tournament and also making Mercier a huge favourite to lift the championship. When the two players clashed, they were both holding the chip lead. With the flop showing 8 7 2, the young Italian bet out with a raise of 200,000. Mercier came over the top with an all-in bet which was instantly called by Minieri who turned over pocket queens.

He must have been fairly happy to have seen Mercier turn over an A 4, but any relief was wiped away when a diamond on the river gave the American an Ace High flush and sent Minieri home cursing his luck, but with a cheque for €287,000 to ease his frustration.

Being a massive underdog going into the heads up, Frenchman Anthony Lellouche knew that he’d need to get his chips in early and hope for a bit of luck to double up. While he managed the first part of his mission, he didn’t get the luck he was hoping for and lost all his chips only two hands into heads up play.

Lellouche went all in with a pair of sevens and found himself being called by Mercier who was holding K Q. A second Q fell on the flop and the Frenchman received no help from either the turn or the river and had to be content with second place.

He walked away from the table €505,000 while Mercier received €869,000 and the pleasure of winning his first EPT title.

Written by ShortStack · Filed Under Poker News 

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