Top international poker pro Jason Mercier (29) has secured his fourth World Series of Poker winner’s bracelet after taking the honours in the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball Championship at the Rio in Las Vegas.
Mercier was awarded the main prize of $273,335 after he survived a field of 100 and a tough heads up against Michael Watson, whose second place finish carried a take-home of $168,936.
The professional player revealed that the win was doubly important because he had taken on so many side bets that he would be successful. Combined, these rewarded him with more than the actual first prize in the event.
The heads up duo started final table action in first and second places in terms of chip stacks and that’s pretty much the way it stayed through to the heads up, where Watson had a 4 to 3 advantage at the start, but Mercier delivered a masterful performance to equalise and then build a 2 to 1 lead which enabled him to shut down Watson and claim the main prize.
The other final table players cashed as follows:
Lamar Wilkinson $120,025
David Grey $86,302
Benny Glaser $62,810
Stephen Chidwick $46,277
Alexandre Luneau $34,522