/ Matthew Pitt / 23 June 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Mercier collects his second bracelet (Photo credit: PokerNews.com)
Jason Mercier is widely regarded as one of the best poker tournament players in the world and he has added extra weight to this statement by taking down his second World Series of Poker event, the inaugural $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Handed tournament.
Mercier exploded onto the live poker scene back in 2008 when an outright win in the EPT San Remo Main Event, which incidentally was his first major live cash, saw him walk away with €869,000. He cashed a further seven times during the year including making the final table of EPT Barcelona Main Event, the £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament at the WSOPE and an outright win in the £20,000 High Roller event at the European Poker Championships. By the time 2008 had come to an end he had won almost $2,800,000.
He proved that his success was not just a flash in a pan and during 2009 he won more than $1,300,000 from live tournaments and nearly $1,060,000 in 2010 and thanks to this latest in a long line of victories, Mercier has already earned close to $1,158,000 in the first half of this year.
Mercier always seems to do well at the WSOP, having cashed at least four times at each of the series since 2008 if you include the WSOPE. In 2009 he won his first bracelet in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event and this win in the $5,000 event was his fourth cash of the 20111 WSOP and was made all the more impressive by the fact it was quite possibly one of the toughest fields ever assembled.
He started the third and final day fifth in chips but got off to a great start when he eliminated both Peter Jetten and Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott in the same hand to take his stack past the 1,200,000 mark. In the hand Ulliott made it 25,000 to play from the button, Jetten three-bet to 110,000 in the small blind and both Mercier (big blind) and Ulliott made the calls. The dealer spread the 2d-Jd-8s flop and Jetten wasted no time in open-shoving for the rest of his stack. Mercier followed suit and Ulliott almost beat them all into the pot, a three way all in with Mercier covering his opponents.
Mercier: Qd-9d-Tc-6c (open-ended straight draw and flush draw)
Jetten: Ah-Ac-9s-5c (a pair of aces)
Ulliott: Jc-Jh-7d-7h (top set)
The dealer burned a card and put out the Qc on the turn, completing a straight for Mercier and leaving Jetten drawing dead but if the board paired Ulliot would have tripled up. But alas the river was the 4c, which did not please Ulliott who called Mercier, "the luckiest f****ng mother-f***er alive!" as he left the table. Mr Ulliott obviously needs to check out a poker odds calculator as Mercier was actually a narrow 48.44 to 46.66% favourite over Ulliott in the hand with Jetten holding the remaining 4.89% equity.
A chipped up Mercier is a dangerous opponent, a chipped up Mercier who is running well is almost impossible to play against so it was no surprise that as the players were gradually being eliminated it was he who found himself heads up against Hans Winzeler for the bracelet. It was quite an uneven match, with Winzeler having only $70,000 in live tournament winnings compared to Mercier's $5,700,000 so once Mercier snatched the chip lead there never looked like any other result apart from a victory for the Florida resident.
The final hand came around 90 minutes into heads up and saw Mercier raise to 160,000 preflop and then call Winzeler's three-bet to 480,000. The flop came down 9d-4s-3d, Mercier bet 90,000, Winzeler potted all-in and Mericer quickly called.
Mercier: Qc-6c-5d-3s
Winzeler: Ac-Kc-Kd-Js
Winzeler held an overpair but was actually slightly behind in the hand in terms of equity due to the nature of Omaha and the fact Mercier held a pair and an open-ended straight draw. None of Mercier's outs landed on the turn as it was the Tc but the 7h on the river completed Mercier's straight and was enough to eliminate Winzeler from the tournament for a well deserved $383,075 addition to his bankroll.
Final table payouts
1st: Jason Mercier: $619,575
2nd: Hans Winzeler: $383,075
3rd: Steven Merrifield: $239,100
4th: David Chiu: $156,628
5th: Joseph Ressler $105,967
6th: Mike McDonald: $73,965
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