Mercier Wins!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Mercier Wins PokerStars EPT London £1m Showdown!

In a battle between two of the hottest winning streaks in poker, Jason Mercier defeated John Juanda in heads-up play to capture the PokerStars.com EPT London £1m Showdown on Monday night at the Vic.

Mercier, who shocked the poker world last April with a victory at EPT4 San Remo and followed that up with a sixth-place finish last month at EPT5 Barcelona, overcame a 2-1 chip disadvantage against World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champ John Juanda to clinch another remarkable victory and an equally remarkable £516,000 ($899,950 USD) first prize.

The young Floridian's ride to victory lane was something of an under-the-radar affair, as the kid seemed to stay out of the EPT cameras' prying eyes until action got down to three-handed play.

Although he entered the start-of-day third in chips behind David Benyamine and Alex Roumeliotis with 14 players remaining, Mercier quickly faded into near anonymity as his counterparts at the final two tables did most of the initial heavy lifting.

Tough table!

Of course, it probably helped that those colleagues were the likes of Juanda, Benyamine, Scotty Nguyen, alleged November Niner Dennis Phillips, Team PokerStars pro Isabelle Mercier and online phenoms Peter "Apathy" Jetten, Mike "SirWatts" Watson and Isaac "LuvtheWNBA" Haxton. The stacked nature of the field made it relatively easy for Mercier, still a fresh face on the tour, to do his thing in private.

Action resumed at 1 p.m. in the poker room at the Vic and by 3:30 p.m. only nine remained, all of whom had earned themselves a seat at the final table and a place on the payroll, with each finalist guaranteed at least £51,500 in straight cash.

Canada's Jetten held the chip lead as play continued under the spotlights, his $347,000 good for a $45k advantage over second-place Juanda. Mercier, meanwhile, found himself $98,000 behind Juanda, in third on the leaderboard but much closer to Haxton and Benyamine's numbers than those of the top two.

Not even Super Dario could help Ms. Mercier!

Two-day tournaments are never going to provide a substantial amount of play for the money and so it was with this one, as the structure at the final table meant a multitude of short stacks found themselves perennially in danger of extinction.

Almost immediately, the first of those short stacks hit the road. Isabelle Mercier, one-half of the feared Team PokerStars Isabario Mercinieri conglomerate, came into the final table with only $86,000 to her name and saw that number dwindle to $68k by the time she shoved on Watson, who turned up A-K to No Mercy's A-J.

The French-Canadienne picked up a gut-shot draw on the turn but couldn't get there on the river and was summarily dismissed, with a £51,500 golden parachute for her ninth-place finish.

Ran into rockets!

It would take another level before the next two eliminations succumbed to the rising tide of blinds and antes, with Benyamine and Japanese businessman/degenerate gambler Masaaki Kagawa the next to go.

Benyamine would find himself victimized by Mike Watson's seemingly standard button-shove, calling out of the big blind holding K-J to SirWatts' pocket aces. The board would produce a double gut-shot draw for Mr. B, but the river would brick out, and the Full Tilt pro was banished to the rail, out in eighth and taking £69,000 from the prize pool as he went.

Not long afterward, Kagawa would four-bet all-in against SirWatts, getting a quick call from the Canadian kid, who tabled A K to Kagawa's A Q. The board ran A 4 2 2 J, sending Kagawa packing in seventh for an £86,000 haul while simultaneously giving Watson - who'd previously seen his stack ravaged by a Kagawa three-outer - a much-needed infusion of chips.

Played chicken with a bulldozer!

With five players remaining the field would break for dinner, and the allotted 45 minutes must not have been enough for Isaac Haxton, who wasted little time losing a game of chicken with Juanda, whose aces played nicely against Haxton's eights after a pre-flop all-in raising war. Juanda would flop top set and take it from there, busting Haxton no sweat and sending the Lizard King back for seconds with £103,000 with which to pay the tab.

The pot would give Juanda a $738,000 stack, worth just under half of the total chips in play with five contestants remaining. The man who on Friday emerged victorious from the longest final table in recorded history seemed poised to take another championship banner on Monday, maintaining his chip lead by eliminating Scotty Nguyen in rather painful fashion.

Would rather not talk about the river!

Juanda called Nguyen's short-stacked all-in holding K 9 to the Prince of Poker's A T and immediately told his rival he'd soon be the fifth-place finisher. The flop made that outcome a distinct possibility, coming J 7 6 and leading Juanda to further postulate that Nguyen would be drawing dead on the turn.

Fourth street, however, was the A and Nguyen let Juanda know it, but his implacable opponent simply reminded him, "Poker is a five-card game," and after the J fell on the river you could be sure Nguyen wouldn't forget it. As predicted, the Prince wound up in fifth place and took £137,500 for his time.

That left four players remaining, two Canadian and two American, and the Americans quickly set to work sending their neighbors to the north packing.

Leaving on a Jetten plane!

First up was Jetten, who made a button raise with A J and found himself staring down the barrel of Mercier's all-in overshove from the big blind. Jetten would make the call and find himself racing against Mercier's deuces, though the A Q 2 flop seemed to end the drama almost before it had begun.

The turn card, however, was the A and Apathy picked up a few more outs, only to see the brickly K fall on the river to eliminate him from contention. The Torontonian collected £189,000 for his fourth-place effort.

Juanda would then take care of Watson, sending the Newfie home with A K after his rival dared to pull a move with A 7. A board full of blanks sealed the deal and the bye was sent packing, out in third place and collecting £241,000 with which to salt the proverbial cod.

Live by the river, die by the river!

Thus only Juanda and Mercier remained, their mutual survival having ensured a spectacular heads-up confrontation between two of the most compelling stories of the poker year, pitting the resurgent marathon man against his upstart rival in a storybook battle with history on the line.

Juanda entered heads-up play holding a decided advantage over his young adversary and quickly sought to end the battle, putting Mercier all-in on the very first hand of heads-up. It would prove to be his undoing, as Mercier matched his rival's wager, holding Q J to Juanda's A 2, and with four blanks on the board managed to spike the J to win the pot, doubling up and taking the chip lead for the final time.

Doesn't have to talk it 'cuz he lives it!

A few rounds later and the game was over. This time, it was Mercier putting Juanda to the test with an all-in overshove. The Full Tilt pro was ready to call, tabling A J to his opponent's K Q and holding a marginal advantage heading to the flop.

That flop, however, would spell disaster for Juanda, coming J T 9 and giving Mercier the flopped nut straight. The 5 on the turn would end Juanda's comeback dreams and the 3 would make his demise official, earning Mercier the pot and winning him the tournament in what continues to be one of the most magnificent coming-out parties in recent memory.

For the victory, Mercier takes £516,000 and that EPT paperweight, as well as a few minutes alone with Martin Derbyshire. Juanda, meanwhile, earns another £327,000 and in a startling break from tradition, also found himself the subject of a Derbyshire interrogation, which we'll have up later in the week.

The EPT pulls up from London now and touches down in Budapest on the 28th of October. Meanwhile, PokerListings.com sets off on new adventures, to Auckland on the PokerStars APPT, Niagara Falls on the WPT and scenic Caesars Indiana on the WSOPC.

Grab a breather for a few days and then hit us back for more spectacular coverage from the No. 1 name in workplace procrastination!