US poker pro Jason Mercier moved up the rankings…and closer to scoring big time on some heavy prop bets…over the weekend when he claimed his second bracelet this World Series of Poker season – and his career fifth in the coveted jewellery – by taking down the $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Championship event after cutting through a competitive stellar field of 171 entrants.
It was his third championship level final table in an action-packed week that has seen him start the final day in each of these three-day events with the chip lead, winning bracelets in two of them and achieving a second placing in the third.
In his latest victory Mercier started day three with the chip lead on 14 other survivors, and held it through much of the final table action, although he appeared to fade somewhat at one point, dropping to a million chips.
However, he recovered strongly to star in a hard fought heads up duel with Aussie pro James Obst, who at that point held a 3 to 1 lead (6.23 million vs. Mercier’s 2.325 million).
Within an hour Mercier had caught up and then overtaken Obst, but this was an opponent who would not surrender and the lead changed another two or three times before Mercier was able to secure and then maintain the advantage through to a victory.
Obst earned his biggest career win yet at $261,354 for a sterling effort, leaving the main spoils of the day – $422,874 and that precious fifth bracelet – to Mercier.
Other final table cashes included:
Nick Schulman $183,779
Adam Friedman $131,519
Mikhail Semin $95,817
Jesse Martin $71,089
Yuval Bronshtein $53,729
Bryn Kenney $41,383
A delighted Mercier revealed to local reporters that some of the hefty prop bets he had taken were dependent on his winning two bracelets (some on three) and that the win had enabled him to benefit from those bets.