Florida poker pro Jason Mercier (28) is feeling a lot better about his prospects after a financially mediocre World Series of Poker so far turned into a notable victory in event 32 – a $5,000 buy-in Six Handed NLHE competition which he won Thursday after a tense hour-long tussle with Brit player Simon Deadman.
Besides the $633,357 prize, the win was Mercier’s third WSOP bracelet (his first NLHE jewellery), his 43rd WSOP cash and his 13th WSOP final table, bringing his earnings over the years in this tournament to almost $3 million, and his overall career earnings somewhere north of $14 million.
“It feels great,” Mercier said after the event. “I was really down on myself. I was getting beat up in cash, busting every tournament. This is the first tournament I made day 2 of. It feels really good just to go deep, make the final table, and to win is just the cherry on top.”
The competition attracted a pro-heavy field of 550 entries and generated a prize pool of $2,585,000. The final table featured two other previous bracelet holders in Mike Gorodinksy and Igor Dubinskyy
Mercier eliminated most of the final table players before facing 27-year-old Brit pro Simon Deadman in the heads up, which was a back-and-forth affair until the Floridian finally dominated a tough and tenacious opponent, sending Deadman home with his biggest WSOP win yet – the runner up prize of $391,446.
Other final table cashes included:
3 Mike Gorodinksy $246,867
4 Dario Sammartino $163,604
5 Igor Dubinskyy $111,672
6 James Obst $78,428