This week, the PocketFives.com Podcastwelcomes wildly successful live and online tournament pro Jason treysfull21Mercier. The Floridian has been on fire in 2010, taking third in the L.A. Poker Classic’s High-Roller event for $141,000 and then promptly logging a deep run in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, where he reached the semi-finals before falling to former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen. The PocketFives.com Podcast is proudly sponsored by the USA-friendly site Carbon Poker.

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship featured 64 pros and qualifiers taking to the felts in pursuit of a $500,000 top prize. Mercier defeated fellow PokerStarssponsored pro Daniel Negreanu in the first round and reigning European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final winner Pieter de Korver in the second round. When 16 players remained, Mercier matched wits with Phil Laak.
On the fast-paced structure at the made-for-television event in Las Vegas, Mercier told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “It’s a very interesting format. The structure is pretty fast and I was a little surprised at how fast it was. A lot of players in that event don’t know how to play short-stacked very well, especially heads-up.” Four former WSOP Main Event winners reached the final eight, with UB.compro Annie Duke (pictured at left) becoming the tournament’s first female champion. You can catch it on NBC starting on April 18th.

In 2009, Mercier took down a $5,000 HORSE event during the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December for $100,000, won a preliminary event during EPT London for $184,000, finished fourth in the WSOP Europe Main Event for $440,000, and took down his first bracelet in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament in Sin City. He recently ascended to #2 on ESPN’s list of the top-ranked poker players dubbed “The Nuts,” trailing only Full Tilt Pokerpro Phil Ivey (pictured at right).

As you can tell, Mercier has traveled non-stop for poker. He spoke on the PocketFives.com Podcast about how he handles burnout: “I get burnt out a little bit. I came home to Florida, but was planning to go to the Wynn to play some prelims. It doesn’t take me that long to get fired up again. I’m definitely motivated to continue to play. I really enjoy the game.” Mercier stormed onto the live poker scene in 2008, when he won the EPT San Remo event for $1.4 million.

Now, Mercier is a sponsored pro of the world’s largest online poker room, PokerStars. The site’s top-notch talent includes WSOP Main Event champs Joe jcada99 Cada (pictured at left), Peter Eastgate, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, and Chris Moneymaker. Mercier revealed, “Since becoming a PokerStars pro, I’ve met and talked with a lot of other Team Pros, especially the ones from the U.S., and I’m friendly with all of them. It’s an honor to be a part of such an elite group of players.”

Airing currently on GSN is the sixth season of the popular cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker.” Mercier is one of the eight players currently seated and critiqued his performance: “From what’s been shown on TV so far, there hasn’t been much action with me. I was pretty card dead for most of the time I was on there. I wish I could have not worn the sunglasses I did because it looked pretty terrible, I think.” New episodes of “High Stakes Poker” air on Sunday nights at 8:00pm ET on GSN.

Check out the rest of this week’s PocketFives.com Podcast.

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