Jason Mercier Poker Blog

Yesterday was Day 1 of the WPT Foxwoods Main Event. I finished the day well above average stack with 84,750 chips. The average is around 51k.

I had a fairly interesting table draw, with Kathy Liebert, who I really enjoyed talking to all day. She was very entertaining and funny.

She even made a bet against the guy next to her who was saying that Miami John is a really good player. She took me vs Miami John, but only if one of us wins the tournament. Obviously, I would be the favorite in this bet.

I think she was also really impressed with the way I played, as I pretty much played perfect all day. Not to mention the fact, I called her hand about 5 times.

I just looked at my table draw for day 2 and it seems to be a fairly tough one. I have Adam Levy, Tommy Vedes, John Hennigan, and Isaac Baron all at my table, who are all pretty solid players from what I've seen.

Isaac is the only one with position on me and I have the whole table covered, so it's not a terrible draw.

Hopefully I can get off to a good start and make my first day 3 on the WPT, then day 4, 5, final table, shippage. WPT title yesssir! You can follow my personal updates on either my twitter page or on www.jasonmercier.com

Read Full Post

With the final table of the main event of the WSOP coming up, I wanted to make a prediction. My prediction is not about who is going to win, but about who I think is going to make a run at the win.

I'm predicting James Akenhead to go on a rush, early, and finish in the top 4, possibly even win it. I had the chance of playing against James in the WSOPE main event for a ton of hours, and let me tell you, the kid's game is SOLID.

Also, he's a super nice guy, and I would like for him to take that shortstack and run it up.

As for an update on me, I played the 5k at Caesars a few days ago, and that obviously didn't go so well. Played pretty well, just had aces cracked twice for big pots near the end of day 1 to bust.

I played on Stars a ton in the last week, making the final two tables of seven online MTTs with zero final tables. 11th, 13th, 14th, 13th, 13th, 14th, and 18th, UGH, it hurts so bad.

I'm going to play MTTs on Stars all day today, and then tomorrow I'm off to Foxwoods to play the last prelim (5k) and the main event.

I will probably be going home after that and then heading to Portugal for the next EPT.

Big Sunday coming up, then my WPT title. One time?

Read Full Post

I don't know what it is about WPTs, but somehow in almost every single one I play, I bust on day 2 playing a hand in a way that I normally would not.

I have had countless brain farts, if you will, early in WPTs. I still have not even sniffed the money of a WPT. Granted I have only played like 10-12 of them, but still it has been frustrating.

I busted WPT Festa al Lago on the 5th hand of Day 2. I put basically 100 bbs in on the river on a massive bluff, risking my tourney life. It was atrocious, and I was very disappointed with myself and my play, and it was a tough one to swallow.

I have no problem when I bust a tourney losing a flip or get cooled off, or take a bad beat, but when it's something that I know that I could have changed and know that I shouldn't have done, that's the most difficult thing to deal with.

I decided I was going to wait until Saturday before I played anything online. Yesterday, I played all the big MTTs and sattys on Stars during the day.

I had an extrememly frustrating day in which I got 11th in the 162, and 11th in the 100 cubed turbo. I also came close and should have won 2 packages. I got 14th in a satty to EPT Portugal which was awarding 6 seats, my AQ crushed by AJ all in pre for a top 3 stack.

I also got 4th in a PCA satty in which I lost QQ vs KJ all in pre for 70% of the chips 5 handed. J turn J river… MEH! It was an all around rough day, looking for much better results today. I will be playing all day today, tons of big MTTs and sattys on Pokerstars.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Read Full Post

I promised a blogpost after I shipped the 10k PLO at Bellagio. Unfortunately, I was not able to ship the whole thing.

I did however manage to get 3rd place out of the tiny 16 player field, which was good for $31k. Only 3 players made the money, which made the tournament very interesting and also very excruciating to play.

We went from 16 to 6 players on Day 1, which took only 14 hours lol. We also played about 3 hours of 4 handed play on the bubble.

I skipped playing on Sunday, and then on Monday I put in basically a 16 hour session, which including playing the 5k prelim at Bellagio, a 1500 satty, 10/20 NL, and 200/400 mixed. In short, it was a decent end to a long painful day.

I plan on possibly going to play the 1k Caesars heads up event tomorrow (Tuesday), and then the 15k main at Bellagio the following day. Looking for that first WPT title son!

Read Full Post

I'm heading off to Vegas in a few days for WPT Festa al Lago at Bellagio. I'm probably only going to play the 10k plo event and the 15k main event.

I'm really excited to play this event as I haven't played a WPT since Bay 101 in March. This will be my first shot at becoming the next player to win a triple crown, or the first to ever win a quadruple crown (FTOPS win).

I am hoping to stay on a heater for the rest of the year.

The last time I posted I had made day 2 of a side event at EPT London. With 23 players left, I said I was going to win it, and I talked about how I don't plan on ever settling and I plan on always being a grinder.

I did just what I said, I won that event for 115k pounds. It was a great way to end my trip and I came home completely satisfied. I have just been chilling since I have been home, only putting in a few hours here and there playing PLO cash.

Next blogpost will probably be after I ship the 10k plo at Bellagio. I'm thinking it will probably be a really small field 40 players or so, but who knows could get a lot. Later!

Read Full Post

If someone told me at the beginning of the WSOPE, "You're going to get 4th in the WSOP Europe main event," I would have said, "Awesome, I hope you are right, I would be ecstatic with 4th place."

On the same note, if that same person told me that I was going to get 4th place right before the final table started, when I had 32% of the chips in play and 3x average stack. I probably would not have liked that, and would hope that they were wrong.

I was fairly disappointed with my 4th place showing at the final table of the WSOPE main. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that I made the final table, very happy with how I played, very happy with how much exposure I got during the event, and very happy with the money I won.

All that being said, it does not mean I have to just settle and it doesn't mean I should give up. I treat EVERY tournament like I NEED to win it. And I feel like I'm going to do well in EVERY tournament I play.

I busted EPT London in the beginning of the 8th level. I had a pretty ridiculously soft table draw, but just couldn't get anything going. No worries though, because I'm just going to ship the first side event I play.

I jumped in the 2500 pound side event yesterday, and finished day 1 with a top 3 stack. 23 players left from the 147 that entered and 16 get paid. It's going to be quite a crapshoot as they are missing many levels from the structure and also it's only 50 min levels, but hey I own crapshoots!

GL me… never settle, always grinding, never stop.

PS thanks to everyone who supported me on my run in the WSOPE, your f/b comments were inspiration to me. Thank you

Read Full Post

Let's do it! I came into yesterday as one of the shortest stacks in 32nd position out of the 36 players that remained going into day 4 of the WSOPE main event.

I quickly made use of my 20 blind stack and ran it up to around average where I hovered for a while. With about 21 players left, I won a few key pots to get a hold of a lot of chips and pretty much never looked back.

I was told I eliminated 8 players yesterday, 6 of the last 15 to go. Entering the final table today, I have 3.2 million chips and the 2nd biggest stack has 1.4 million. It's an extremely tough final table, and I'm just hoping for the best.

I want to win this and I hope I can make it happen. Thanks to everyone who has been following me this whole tournament and thanks in advance for anyone who shows up to cheer me on.

Read Full Post

Saturday was day 1a of the WSOPE main event in London. I decided to play Saturday, so I could have a day off in between day 1 and day 2, because it would probably end up being my last day off for this trip.

My table draws weren't as tough as I thought they were going to be. I only had to play at an extremely tough table for about one hour, when Ashton Griffin and Jens Kyllönen got moved to my table which already had Larslusak and a few other tough opponents.

I got to play on the featured table for the last 2 levels of the day which was a lot of fun. This will be my first time getting on ESPN for some US TV coverage. Yay!

I played and ran really well all day, making only one mistake that I can remember, which actually probably isn't a mistake in the long run, just a misunderstanding of the player's range at the time.

I finished the day second in chips and day 1bs chipleader came up 30k short of my stack. I am entering day 2 on Monday with around 190k and high hopes. Good luck me! PS go Zadester

Read Full Post

While I wait in the Miami International Airport to board my flight to London, I'm reflecting back on the last few days of WCOOP. I made a few deep runs that all ended in pretty much the same fashion, losing a massive pot to bust.

Let's just start off by mentioning on the very next day after finishing 11th, 11th, and 27th in three straight 2 pm 109$ rebuys on stars, I managed to get 11th ONE MORE TIME!

On this same day, I got 3rd in a 109 cubed turbo for 10k and also made a deep run in the 215 plo8 2nd chance wcoop and the Wednesday Quarter Million, but busted in 24th and 29th place.

The following day, Thursday, I went deep in the WCOOP 530 rebuy, but lost a big flip to bust in 26th place. On Friday, I just played the two WCOOP events and was fairly deep in the 530 cubed, but came up short of the money. I decided to take off Saturday, and prepare for my big day on Sunday.

Sunday was a really long grind, starting at 1 pm with the 215 WCOOP, which by the way, Elky won! That's a whole different topic, but he has to be considered the best NLHE tournament player in the world. HAS TO BE! Mad respect!

Read Full Post

Yesterday was Day 5 of my 7 day nonstop MTT grind during WCOOP. I was really pumped about yesterday because of the 320 rebuy PLO event along with the 2nd chance PLO 215 rebuy, as PLO is my favorite game.

I had another miserable day on Monday, coming in 11th AGAIN in the stars 2 pm 100 rebuy. Back to back 11ths was pretty devastating.

I jumped in the 100R yesterday along with all the other big tourneys as they started. I found myself deep again in the 100R, but came up short yet with a 27th place finish. Near the end of the night I was only 2 tabling, still in both PLO events with good stacks.

I was in the top 5 in chips in the 2nd chance for basically the whole tournament, and had a little above average stack in the 320R. I ended up fizzling out of the 320 in 46th place, but was chipleader of the 2nd chance with a few tables left.

I ended up making it to the final table 2nd in chips but quickly took over the chiplead and never looked back.

I entered heads up having Benba out-chipped 2 to 1, and the first big pot we played I outflopped him. We got all the money in and my hand held. So like I said and have been saying to my friends, "Everybody needs a 2nd chance."

$24k for the win! Playing again today, PLO8 WOOHOOOO!!!!

Read Full Post

Sunday was Day 3 of my 7 day nonstop grind of WCOOPs and MTTs on stars.

I started off the day with a deep run in the 109 rebuy. I lost most of my chips on the bubble and ended up blinding into the money with 2 bbs. I won a few pots and flips and before I knew it I had a stack again. I ran my stack up huge and felt like I was going to go all the way.

I took over the chiplead with 16 players left, and from that point on, it was all downhill. I lost my next 4 all in pots. 88 < K10, KJ < Q10, A7 < AK, KJ < A7… to bust in 11th place.

I was fairly miserable, but was still in a bunch of tourneys including the 1k WCOOP, so I needed to stay focused.

Read Full Post

Starting yesterday, I was and still am planning on playing for 7 straight days of WCOOPs and online MTTs. I will be playing every WCOOP except for the 25k heads up on Sunday. Sorry, just not that baller … yet!

Last night I had my first WCOOP cash for this year. I finished 121st in the 215R event 21. I ran KK into AA to cripple me deep, before losing the rest of my chips getting it in slightly behind.

That was the only tourney I cashed in, and I bubbled a few others. It was, all in all, a really frustrating day.

I still have 6 more days of my nonstop grind to go, so looking for some better results. I will be taking the Friday and Saturday off from poker and then I will play the WCOOP main event on Sunday the 20th.

I'm planning on leaving for London on the 22nd to play the WSOPE PLO event and main event before playing EPT London.

Big Saturday one time?

Read Full Post

Since the 3-way chop of the first prelim in Barcelona I played Day 1a of the main event. I busted during the fifth level, got cooled off pretty hard. Because I busted the main, I decided I should try to play a lot of WCOOPs and side events.

Since busting the main, I have played 25 MTTs online and only min-cashed in one, along with an early exit in the 1k plo side event in Barcelona.

Yesterday was an overall just miserable day of poker. I busted the 1k plo right after the dinner break which came after only 2 hours because of the late start time. I rushed back to my hotel room to jump in all the Sunday MTTs only to brick everything.

I sat around playing Chinese poker vs. my roommate, who was only 1-tabling, and watched my horses play online. My one horse at one point was deep in 7 MTTs. To end the story abruptly, let's just say he didn't make any final tables, lost every flip imaginable late in the tourneys.

I'm looking to turn things back around today, in which I will be playing in the 2k side event in Barcelona. I will also be playing the 1k side event the following day. I don't think I'm going to play any more WCOOPs until I get home, seeing as how the internet is pretty awful over here and has been giving me a ton of problems.

Read Full Post

It's that time again!!!! EPT season 6! I've been in Barcelona for less than 36 hours now and I already 3 way chopped a live tournament.

The first event in Barcelona was a 1k euro NL event with 160 players. I ran extremely well and got really lucky when we were 5 handed at the final table.

Carter Phillips and Dag Martin Mikkelsen were the other 2 players left when we got down to 3 handed, so it made perfect sense to chop as they are both very good players.

I took around 32k euros for the score which is a great start to my trip. I will be heading to the Pokerstars party now to hang out and enjoy the rest of the night.

I am going to be playing the Main Event tomorrow (day 1A) and am feeling really good coming off this score. I'll put a blogpost up after the conclusion of day 1A.

Read Full Post

It's been 10 days since I last played poker. I took the last few days off before I left for a week to go to Cancun, Mexico on a trip with a few friends.

I had a really great time thanks to my boys, D Block, Kyle, and Mackeezy Lite. Big ups still! A special thanks to D Block (Darko) for planning the whole thing and making it happen.

I'm really looking forward to the next 5 weeks coming up because I will be playing a ton of big tournaments. Over the next 5 weeks I plan on playing EPT Barcelona, WCOOP, WSOPE event 3 and Main Event, EPT London High Rollers, and EPT London.

I'm looking to have a HUGE month. A third EPT win would be pretty epic. Going to the same places that I went on my hot streak just one year ago is pretty exciting and I don't think I could be any more pumped.

I am going to be playing online Sunday just grinding all the Sunday MTTs on Pokerstars. I'm leaving for Barcelona on the first of September. What what!!

Has anyone looked at the WCOOP schedule yet? It is going to be OFF THE HOOK! I think there are 47 events this year with even bigger guarantees. I plan on playing around 25 or so of the events mostly during the second half of the schedule as it will be easier for me to play them while I am home instead of in Spain.

One last note, I am going to be taking a full 5 week break from drinking alcohol. Today is Day 2 of my 35 day quest. It's something I have wanted to do for a little while now and feel like now is as good of a time as ever. I also want to be super focused over the next 5 weeks anyways.

Prepare for a lot of blogposts with updates on how all the tournaments are going for me.

Read Full Post

On Wednesday I decided to play all the big MTTs on stars starting at 1 PM through the Quarter Million at 9 PM. I was feeling good coming off my 3rd place finish in the 100R from 2 days before and was looking to make some deep runs and hopefully close a tourney.

Early in the night, I shipped the 109 PLO8 for 3k. Winning that tournament for the 2nd time out of the last 3 times I've played it.

I was also making a deep run in the 109 2R1A. I won a big flip when we were down to 10 players to put me 2nd in chips going to the final table. Before I knew it, I had taken over the chiplead.

When we got down to 4 handed play, the chips flew all around the table with no one really busting, before I finally took out my buddy, charder30 in 4th. The other 2 players clashed in a big hand shortly after that, and I was now down to heads up.

I asked the guy if he wanted to do an even chop, because he had me outchipped 800k to 500k. He refused, and then probably regretted that decision shortly after. I chipped up a bit before winning a flip for basically the tournament A9 vs 22. I then finished him off a few hands later.

First place in that tournament was 11.6k. This was now the 2nd time in the last 10 days that I had won 2 tournaments in the same day and I had only played 4 sessions of MTTs with a total of 44 tournaments in that time. 4 wins and 1 third? I'll take that anyday.

I played all day Friday and came close twice, finishing 39th in the 100R and 15th in the 55R but bricked everything else. I decided to take off the rest of the weekend because my grandparents were going to be in town, and also would be celebrating my Dad's birthday this weekend.

Read Full Post

On Sunday, I decided I was going to play all the big MTTs on stars starting from 12:45 to 5:30. I ended up cashing in 4 of the 17 tournaments that I played, 2 of which I won.

I got first in the 109 intellipoker open which had 285 players. First place was $5415. I also won the 109 PLO8 for $3827. This tourney had 178 players.

It felt really good to win 2 online MTTs in the same day. I had never done this before, so it definitely was a nice confidence boost. I min cashed the 215 razz and the 55 rebuy also, but just couldn't get anything going once in the money.

I've been playing PLO cash games during the week and I don't know when the next time I will play MTTs. I have really been enjoying the time at home. I've been having a lot of fun hanging out with my girlfriend and also with my family.

My next trip will be to Cancun, Mexico with a few of my friends in late August. We are just going down there to hang out and have a great time, should be a lot of fun.

Read Full Post

In May of 2006, I became, somewhere in the neighborhood of, the 75th person to achieve Supernova status on Pokerstars. I had earned 100k vpps in that calendar year.

In December of 2006, Pokerstars announced changes they were making to the VIP program. There would be a new level, Supernova Elite. You only had to earn a measly one million VPPs to achieve this status.

On December 20th 2007, I became the sixteenth player to ever reach Supernova Elite on Pokerstars. In the last 11 remaining days of that year following right after me, 23 more players reached SE.

It was harder back then to get Supernova Elite - not only was the VPP accumulation scale different, the maximum cash tables you could play at once was only 12 for the first 8 or so months of 2007.

I decided in 2008 I was going to try and maintain my Supernova Elite status for as long as I could, but not try to get it again. I was burnt out from playing the all-day, all-night sessions and just the grind of it all.

Read Full Post

Since arriving home two weeks ago, I have been playing at least a few hours a day online on Pokerstars. I have only played one day of tournaments, in which I went 0 for 10.

The rest of the time I have just been grinding PLO cash games. I almost forgot what it was like to 8 or 12 table. I feel like I'm getting back into the groove of it.

I had a couple really bad sessions in a row playing 3/6 and 5/10 PLO. After getting crushed for the second straight day, I decided I was going to flip a coin (literally): Heads- move up and play 25/50 right now, Tails- wait until tomorrow and drop down to 2/4.

I flipped the coin and it landed tails. Ok, 2 out of 3? Tails again! Alright 3 out of 5! Tails once more! Ok, ok, I get it- no 25/50 just yet.

I think I'm going to stay at 2/4 for a little while where I can play more tables and not really ever tilt. I will probably play a full schedule of tournaments on Sunday and take a little break from cash.

My next live tournament will most likely be EPT Barcelona in early September. Although I may be taking a trip with some friends to Mexico or some place in the Caribbean in late August, which would be a lot of fun.

Read Full Post

Yesterday one of my poker buddies, who primarily plays cash games online for a living, asked me this question (which I hear quite frequently).

"Who do you think are the better poker players: cash-game professionals or tourney professionals?"

I thought about this for a few seconds. Obviously the kid wanted to hear that cash-game players are better, which I do think that they are ... but only in cash games.

The thing is that cash game grinders are just generally better at cash games, and tourney grinders are just generally better at tourneys. It's that simple.

The real test of how "good" a poker player is must be determined by how well they can do in both settings.

Read Full Post

It's Sunday morning and the absolute last thing that is on my mind is the thought of playing online tourneys today.

I got home late on Friday night from Las Vegas. I decided I was not in the mood to stay out there another week and play the Bellagio Cup. Playing 32 WSOP events in 45 days will do that to you.

I feel like I had a relatively successful Series, not so much in the plus or minus money category, but just in the fact that I accomplished two of my goals for the Series. I won a bracelet and I got a PokerStars deal!

It's so nice to be home, to see my girlfriend again (not exactly easy to be away from someone you love for that long), our dog (cutest dog in the world) and my family (who I will see this morning in a bit).

I am probably going to be taking the next two months off from live poker and just stay home and play online. This might make the blog posts a little less exciting… sorry guys!

As for what I'm going to be playing online while home, I think I am going to be grinding mid-stakes PLO cash and playing MTTs when I feel like it.

I am rooting for two of my good friends that are still in the Main Event. One of them you guys all know: my fellow Team PokerStars Pro, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. The other guy is a little less known, but he's a sick nasty player- Steve Levy.

Read Full Post

I played day 1 of the main event at the WSOP on Friday. I was able to finish with 41k in chips which should be around avg stack.

I had a pretty tough table compared to the field. Andy Zuzolo, Matt Vengrin, and Benny Spindler were all at my table along with a few other guys that were playing decent.

I felt like I played very well. I was only involved in one all in pot the whole day. I lost a 45k with A9dd vs 77 all in on a JdTd7x flop which brought my stack down to around 28k near the end of the night.

I chipped back before the night was over though. I'm really looking forward to playing day 2 tomorrow. My best friend, Darko, came into town on Friday night, so I have just been hanging out and partying with him for the last few days.

Pokerlistings has a pretty awesome video of me talking about the Main Event and a few other things. Check it out right here.

Read Full Post

After I busted the 10k stud-8 tournament on Day 1 with one hour to go late on Thursday night, I made the decision to skip the 2k limit tournament on Friday and take my second day off of the series.

I had a fantastic day off, hanging out by the pool with friends. I was able to go play basketball finally, and capped the night off with a big group of us going to Oyshi, our favorite all you can eat sushi place.

My parents flew into town for the weekend and arrived late last night. It was nice hanging out with them for a little bit last night and today before the 10k PLO.

I will be playing the 10k PLO at 5 pm today and I'm feeling refreshed and ready to go. This is the last PLO tournament of the series, so I'm hoping to make the most of it.

Read Full Post

In the $10k Heads-Up Championship, I managed to win my first two matches of Day 2, putting me into the final 16. I was matched up with Nathan Doudney in the round.

On only the fifth hand of the match, we got all in pre, my jacks vs. Nathan's queens.

It was fairly frustrating considering I had not had jacks, queens, kings, or aces in any of my first four matches. I overlooked a few things that happened in the hand and just kind of said "screw it, I have jacks."

I'm really looking forward to the $5k PLO today. I'm hoping to make a run at my second final table. I think it will be a fairly small field, 250 or less. Let's Do It! I played both the $2,500 PLO and the $1,500 Horse events on the same day that the $10k Heads-Up Day 2 was going on.

I busted the $2,500 PLO shortly after the second break after sitting out for two hours.

In the $1,500 Horse, I didn't show up to my table until 8:30 (tourney started at 5). I still had plenty of chips and did some work to accumulate a decent stack. I ended up busting with seven hands to go at the end of the night.

The past two days have been weird for me. I have played the $2k NL and the $1,500 NL and not made the dinner break of either one. The weird part is that there wasn't a 5 pm tourney that I wanted to play on either day.

So at 4 pm and 6 pm I had nothing else to do. I was able to actually hang out with my friends… Weird, I know! I had a pretty good time chilling with the crew.

Read Full Post

Yesterday, I restarted day 2 of the $5k PLO8. I started with half average stack and got my stack up to almost average, and then lost a pot to Andy Bloch.

It was a ridiculous hand for basically my whole stack. I got it in with a gutter, low draw, and flush draw vs his J-J on an A-J-5 board. Q turn Q river. Well played.

I decided to play the 10k heads up because I was out of the $5k PLO8 just in time to not have to unregister. I faced David Daneshgar the first match.

We were battling back and forth until I coolered him pretty badly. Flatted a 3 bet with 34hh and got it in on a 3 4 6 flop vs his QQ.

I then played Jesper Petersen in the 2nd round. He was running so good and just absolutely crushing me at first. He got me down over 10 to 1 in chips. His stack being 110k and myself only having 10k.

I doubled up with AJ vs K5. Chipped up a bit to get to 30k and then flopped a flush vs his 2 pair. All the money went in and we were then back to even. I kept chipping away and suddenly I was around 85k and he had 35k.

He reshipped K7 when I opened the button with A10 and snapped his shove. Door card was a king, but we aren't worried! Lol K Q 6 flop. Turn Jack… GG sir!

On to round 3… I face Michael Pesek, played against him but mostly only in PLO so we'll see how it goes today. I'm going to play the first 2 hours of the 2500 PLO event before my heads up match.

Read Full Post