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Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008
Mercier posts another EPT win
Mercier continues to run hot in Europe with the EPT £1 million Show Down win.
By Sarah Polson
In April, Jason Mercier burst onto the poker scene by winning the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour event in San Remo, Italy. Now, less than a year later, he's picked up another significant EPT win by taking down the £1 Million Showdown in London.
The EPT London started up just at the tail end of the World Series of Poker Europe events in town as well, which meant some of the top players from around the world were in town to compete. Some of the fattest wallets among them were happy to pay the £20,000 buy-in to play in the high-roller event.
Some of the Team PokerStars Pros who took on the event were Andre Akkari, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Dario Minieri, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Luca Pagano and Greg Raymer.
Five of the PokerStars' Million Dollar Men also competed, as did a few players who won their seats to the event at PokerStars, including Sorel Mizzi and Soren Kongsgaard.
Some of the other big names in the playing field were Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey.
The final nine came down to:
- Seat 1: Peter Jetten, $347,000
- Seat 2: Michael Watson, $104,000
- Seat 3: Isaac Haxton, $193,000
- Seat 4: Isabelle Mercier, $86,000
- Seat 5: David Benyamine, $175,000
- Seat 6: Scotty Nguyen, $68,000
- Seat 7: Jason Mercier, $204,000
- Seat 8: Masaaki Kagawa, $142,000
- Seat 9: John Juanda, $302,000
Mercier wasn't the only player at the final table who's been running hot. John Juanda was coming off winning the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, and he proved to be the biggest challenge at the table.
It seemed inevitable that Juanda would be adding another win to his resume when it got down to heads-up play between him and Mercier. Juanda had a nearly 2-1 chip advantage and Mercier knew Juanda wouldn't be afraid to use it against him.
"The blinds were $10,000/$20,000 so I only had 25 big blinds, so I can't just keep limp-folding to his raises and I know he's aggressive as hell," Mercier said in his post-win interview.
"So when I raise with the Q-J and he shoves immediately I know he's got ace-rag or a low pair, so I'm going to take the coin flip every time."
That Q-J hand Mercier refers to is the hand that put him in the chip lead during heads-up. It wasn't long after he took the lead that he also took the win.
In the winning hand, Mercier was dealt K-Q - the same hand that had won him the San Remo event. Juanda raised from the button, and Mercier moved all-in.
Juanda called and turned over A-J, but the flop gave Jason a winning king-high straight. He picks up another £516,000 for the win, with Juanda pocketing £327,000 for second place.
The final-table results were as follows:
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Jason Mercier | United States | £516,000 |
| 2nd | John Juanda | United States | £327,000 |
| 3rd | Michael Watson | Canada | £241,000 |
| 4th | Peter Jetten | Canada | £189,000 |
| 5th | Scotty Nguyen | United States | £137,500 |
| 6th | Isaac Haxton | United States | £103,000 |
| 7th | Masaaki Kagawa | Japan | £86,000 |
| 8th | David Benyamine | France | £69,000 |
| 9th | Isabelle Mercier | Canada | £51,500 |
When asked if this win was particularly special because of the high-caliber playing field, Mercier said it did feel pretty special.
"I mean, there were 86 players so it was a small field, but probably 50 of the top 200 players were in this event. [I mean the] top 200 tournament players in the world in my opinion, so to get first is pretty unbelievable."
To read more about Mercier's journey to victory in the £1 Million Showdown at the EPT London, visit the Live Tournaments section.
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