One year removed from his most impressive performance ever at the World Series of Poker, Jason Mercier is hungry for more.
Last year Mercier went on a 11-cash tear at the WSOP that included two bracelet victories and a Player of the Year title.
The biggest story, however, was that Mercier made a massive bet on winning three WSOP bracelets and came dangerously close to doing it.
“It makes it a lot more fun for me to play,” he said while on break from the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw event.
“I like the fact that I can always play for the win and not have to worry about min-cashing or ICM at the final table.”
Gunning for Two Bracelets this Year
This time around Mercier is concentrating his efforts on a slightly more achievable goal than last year.
“Most of my bets are just on winning one bracelet this year but I also have some bets on winning two where I’m getting a big price.”
Jason Mercier in the 2016 WSOP
It might be surprising to learn that anyone would bet against Mercier considering how close he came to clinching the 180-1 bet on winning three bracelets against Vanessa Selbst last year but it turns out that high rollers just want to gamble.
“I had a decent amount of people putting in small bets via Twitter but I was able to get some big action down during the One Drop event against a few big names.
It’s anyone’s guess who those big names might be considering the amount of high-profile players who took part in the $111k buy-in One Drop tournament.
Simply taking part in the WSOP would be exciting enough for the average poker player but Mercier benefits from a little extra incentive that bets give him.
“There are just a number of instances throughout the WSOP where I don’t really feel like playing,” he said.
“For example when I busted out of the One Drop I’d rather go get drunk or go see a movie or anything else than hopping in this mixed Triple Draw event; however, the bets that I have kinda force me to get into the next event and keep on grinding."
Change on the Horizon for Mercier
Mercier is hardly the only player to take bracelet bets as Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan and many others have taken huge ones in the past. But Mercier captured the attention of the poker world and even the mainstream media with his performance last year.
Jason Mercier's brand-new POY banner at the Rio.
“It was definitely a very tough task last year playing as much as I did,” he said.
“I just tried to give myself a good opportunity to win three and the massive bet.
“I mean overall it was obviously a great summer. I’m kinda trying to repeat the same thing as I did last year.”
Mercier cashed for nearly $1m last summer and cruised to a WSOP Player of the Year Title.
This might be the last time that Mercier gets to book some big bets for awhile. Mercier and his wife Natasha are expecting their first child and that could seriously cut into his WSOP grinding time in the future.
Back-to-back WSOP Player of the Year titles would certainly be a nice way to kick off fatherhood.
