The 24th event of the recently completed PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP, was a $700 No Limit Hold’em tournament that came with a $1.5 million guarantee. In the end, over $2.3 million was up for grabs and Jason treysfull21 Mercier (pictured) was one of four players to chop. Doing so meant a colossal $229,000 payday, the second largest we’ve tracked for him.

Mercier told us that when play got down to four people, the stacks were basically even. He admitted, “I wasn’t too happy with the idea of chopping because I had never seen any of the other guys’ names before. While I thought they were playing well, I didn’t know who they were. So, I figured I would ask for a little more money if we did a deal.”

When the group looked at the numbers, Mercier would have been due $214,000 under a chip-chop. The two chip leaders agreed, but Mercier asked to look at ICM, which came out to $220,000 for him. All three of his opponents agreed and Mercier explained, “I thought I had a little leverage to ask for more money and also felt I deserved a little more money since I felt like I had a decent edge. I asked for $230,000 and left it up to them… I felt like chopping would give me a better chance of winning with my stack.I really wanted to win the WCOOP title. That was my primary concern besides the money.”

Two of his three opponents agreed to toss $3,000 his way and one declined, so another $1,500 was given from each of the two players to finalize a deal. Mercier played for another 90 minutes after the deal was made, but lost a coin flip and then lost with aces against threes for one-third of the chips in play. His money went in with fours against sixes and he failed to draw out, exiting in third place.

Was Mercier retrospectively pleased with the deal? He told us, “I feel like I got a good deal. There is a lot of variance, especially when you’re playing for so much money. I like playing these big tournaments and, at the end, there’s a lot of money on the line. If circumstances arise where I can lock up more guaranteed money and my skill factors in too, I’d like to take advantage of that.”

Mercier was one of the many poker players who flocked to Seminole Hard Rock (pictured) in Florida for a $10 million guaranteed tournament in recent weeks. We asked for his thoughts on the gala and he told us, “It was awesome to see so many people there. I was skeptical when they announced it that they would pull the guarantee or it would have a big overlay, which would be bad for the casino. I was proud of the casino for stepping up to the plate.” In the end, the tournament broke its guarantee by nearly $2 million.

Mercier has also been a vocal opponent of the first card off the deck rule, which states that a player must be within arm’s reach of his seat when the first card off the deck is dealt; otherwise, his hand is dead. “I’d like to get it changed back to the last card off the deck. I’ve never seen anyone complain about the rule being the last card off the deck in the last five years of playing live poker. It had never really come up until the EPT changed it to the first card off the deck. Now, it’s an issue.”

Mercier continued, “It’s a matter of the environment of playing poker. You don’t want to play poker in an environment where people are getting pissed off. When 90% or 95% of the poker world doesn’t want something, I don’t see how you can agree that’s the way it should be. The whole community doesn’t want it, so it seems borderline insane… You can still stand behind someone and look at their cards if they’re not protecting them.”

Finally, Mercier must head out of the United States, where he currently resides in Florida, in order to play online poker. As such, he commutes for larger tournament series like the WCOOP. When asked whether shuttling back and forth was taxing, Mercier responded, “I generally mostly play online poker when I’m already outside the U.S. for something like an EPT event. I don’t really have to make too many trips outside of the U.S. to play online except if there’s a big event going on. I have friends in different places and my best friend lives in Toronto, so I like going up there to spend time with him and play. If I need to fly to the Caribbean to play something online, there are a lot of options.”

You can catch the WCOOP and other big series on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives MTT Training. You’ll also get a 100% up to $600 sign-up bonus. Click here for PocketFives’ PokerStars link.

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