By finishing first, second and first in three consecutive $10,000 buy-in Championship events at the 2016 World Series of Poker events, Jason Mercier etched himself into the poker history books, but a deeper dive into the numbers shows just how special Mercier’s current run really is. These big buy-in, small field events usually feature some of the less popular poker variants like Razz, No Limit Deuce to Seven and Eight Game Mix and tend to bring out only the best players in the world and Mercier is certainly at or near the top of that list.

The numbers prove it.

Since 2008, when a 21-year-old Mercier was first able to play at the WSOP, there have been a total of 84 $10,000 “Championship” events (including the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, but not counting the Main Event, which has a field size roughly 60X the size, or any High Roller event) and over that time frame Mercier has performed at a level only two or three others have been able to match.

Number of times Mercier has cashed in the $10,000 Championship events. That puts him alone at the top for number of cashes, one ahead of Nick Schulman and three ahead of Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel and Matt Glantz.

Mercier’s two wins in $10,000 Championship events this year are the first two of his career, but it ties him for the second most of all-time with Schulman, George Danzer, Brian Hastings, Michael Mizrachi and David ‘Bakes’ Baker. The only player with more is Daniel Alaei with four different Championship wins.

Mercier is tied with Alaei for the most Top 2 finishes in the Championship events with four. While Alaei has never lost a heads-up battle for one of the $10,000 Championship bracelets, Mercier is actually 2-2. His two wins this summer (in No Limit Deuce to Seven and HORSE) are offset against being unable to get the better of Alexander Peterson in the 2015 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship or Ray Dehkharghani in the $10,000 Razz event earlier this summer. Four players –Schulman, Baker, Paul Volpe and Phil Hellmuth – are tied with three top two finishes.

Mercier is also tied for third for most top-five finishes with five. He’s part of a group of five players that are just one behind Schulman and Danzer. While two of these are wins, and two more are runner-up finishes, his fifth result came in 2014 when he finished third behind Volpe and Negreanu respectively in the $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven event.

Mercier is one of just four players to have grossed more than $2,000,000 Championship events. The only players to have won more in these events are Michael Mizrachi ($3,527,357), Alaei ($3,028,263) and Scotty Nguyen ($2,011,952) and both Mizrachi and Nguyen have won the $50,000 Poker Players Championsip at least once to boost their earnings. Mercier’s total earnings of $2,011,952 represent 44.6% of his WSOP earnings.

Mercier’s four cashes in 2016 $10,000 Championship events puts him just one behind Ville Wahlbeck for the most in one summer. In 2009, Wahlbeck cashed five times including a win, a second, a third and a sixth place finish. Mercier is tied with six other players with four $10,000 cashes in a single summer. There are still four more Championship events on the 2016 schedule.

Most WSOP Championship Cashes in a Single Year

• 2009 – Ville Wahlbeck (5)
• 2008 – Alexander Kostritsyn (4)
• 2014 – Nick Schulman (4)
• 2014 – Daniel Negreanu (4)
• 2014 – George Danzer (4)
• 2014 – Todd Brunson (4)
• 2015 – Paul Volpe (4)
• 2016 – Jason Mercier (4)

Mercier’s two bracelets in $10,000 Championship events this year marked only the second time that a player has done that in a single year. In 2014, Danzer won the $10,000 Razz and $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo events. (Note: Greg Merson won the $10,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em and Main Event in 2012, but given the relative field sizes, the Main Event was not considered for this data).