Six months ago, Jason Mercier burst onto the poker scene, shocking the world by defeating Team PokerStars pro Dario Minieri at the European Poker Tour's San Remo final table.
The Florida-based former math teacher-in-training banked €869,000 for his victory and instantly became one of the bright young stars to watch on the European circuit. On Sunday he'll attempt to become the first player to win two tournaments in the EPT's four-plus season history.
PokerListings.com caught up with him as play wrapped at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning:
So how did your day go today?
My day started off pretty good. I was never involved in a pot where my hand had to be shown the whole time.
Then we got down to nine-handed and I lost ace-king versus nines to Davidi Kitai for almost $400,000 when he flopped a set. I would have had $1.5 million and a massive chip lead going to the final table, but it didn't happen.
And then a bit later I got ace-queen and Sebastian Ruthenberg jammed for twelve big blinds. [Martin Nielsen] folded jacks and Ruthenberg had nines, I had ace-queen and an ace hit the flop but a nine hit the flop also. So, yeah.
How do you bounce back from a couple tough beats like that?
You hope the blinds go backwards. The blinds are pretty out of control right now - they're $20,000/$40,000. I hope they put them back to at least $15,000/$30,000 if not $12,000/$24,000 for tomorrow.
Are you as comfortable playing with a small stack, or do you consider yourself a better big stack player?
No actually, I'm not as comfortable. Right now I only have about thirteen big blinds and it's kind of either jam or fold. I don't really like to do that; I like to be able to raise-fold a lot, because I steal a lot of times.
Do you feel like you have a good read on the rest of the table?
[Laughs] Yeah, I feel I have a good read. Sam [Chartier] my friend, I think is probably the best player - or one of the best players. Sebastien is really good as well.
Besides that I think everyone is kind of inexperienced. Davidi is good, but we'll see what happens.
You and Sam are roommates on this trip, correct?
Yeah. We became friends in San Remo (EPT4). I met him through my friends and me and him were the only ones that stayed in San Remo from a massive group of like eleven guys. So we ended up sharing a room together there and kind of bonding through the whole me winning experience. He was there for the whole final table and so we became really good friends because of that.
We went to Monte Carlo together for the EPT Grand Final and then we planned this trip together and planned on both playing. And now we're both at the final table.
When we talked to you in San Remo you mentioned you thought the field was pretty inexperienced and the level of skill wasn't particularly high. How does this field compare?
The field in general is a little stronger than in the tournament in San Remo. There were a lot more good players who came out and played this event, but there were still a lot of bad players.
At this point the inimitable Mad Harper bursts in.
Mad: I'm sorry. I know this is the super-important PokerListings interview [ed - damn right!], but have you had a birthday? How old are you?
Twenty one.
Mad: Still? For how much longer?
Three more months.
Mad leaves.
PokerListings: You came into the final table at San Remo kind of an unknown, playing one of your first major tournaments. Here you're the biggest name at the final table. How does that affect your game?
I don't think it's really going to affect my approach that much. Maybe the way that guys perceive me - I think I was able to get away with a lot today. Guys were kind of afraid to come over the top of me and when they did, I shoved. So guys saw that and they really didn't want to three-bet me. So I was able to steal a lot of pots.
[Being well-known] kind of helps me a bit, I think, but I don't think it's really going to affect my play tomorrow because we're going to kind of be short-stacked anyway.
Right on. Get some sleep and good luck at the final table.
Thanks.
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Mercier took a number of painful beats during the later stages of Day 3 and will start play on Sunday with the second-smallest stack at the table. Throughout the tournament, however, the play of young treysfull21 has attracted plenty of buzz and many onlookers favored him to win as early as Day 2. Mercier has the experience and the talent, but will have to negotiate an increasingly escalating structure if he hopes to make history on Sunday.
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