WSOP: Jason Mercier Wins $10K HORSE for Bracelet #2 of 2016
Jason Mercier made a lot of noise before the 2016 World Series of Poker, making multiple prop bets against any and all comers. He’s made even more noise in the last eight days. After opening this year’s Series by failing to cash in his first nine events, Mercier has posted four straight cashes, including his second bracelet win of the summer early Saturday morning in Las Vegas.
Mercier won the $10,000 HORSE event against one of the most stacked final tables of the year. Mercier outlasted a group that included Nick Schulman, Adam Friedman and eventual runner-up James Obst to claim the fifth bracelet of his career.
Event #21: Calvin Lee Wins $3,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em
Calvin Lee took full advantage of the fourth day of the $3,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event to win the first WSOP bracelet of his career. Lee, a high stakes cash game player who normally plies his trade in Macau, earned $531,577 for the win.
“The way it went, going so long like it did, the blinds were so high that it became like a crap shoot,” Lee said. “We only had about 15 big bets at the end; you would raise, then they’d move all in, and it was a race. It was very stressful. I got very lucky, and feel very fortunate.”
The extra day of play was necessary after five players were still alive after Level 30 on Thursday.
Runner-up Steven Thompson earned $328,487 for his runner-up performance. Mark ‘dipthrong’ Herm finished in third place for $224,805 – the largest WSOP score of his career.
Final Table Payouts
- Calvin Lee – $531,577
- Steven Thompson – $328,487
- Mark Herm – $224,805
- Will Givens – $156,281
- Martin Kozlov – $110,389
- Alex Queen – $79,246
Event #23: Viliyan Petleshkov Leads $2,000 No Limit Hold’em with Just One Opponent Left
At the start of Day 3 in the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event there were 27 players still playing for the bracelet. After 11 levels of play on Friday, just two players were left standing. Bulgaria’s Viliyan Petleshkov ended the day with the chip lead, holding 8,715,000 to the 5,480,000 of his final opponent, Cesar Garcia.
Anthony Spinella, who started the day with the most chips, busted out in ninth place. He was followed out by Thiago Nishijima in eighth place and former WPT500 champion Craig Varnell in seventh.
Other notables who saw their run end on Friday include Matt Stout, former November Niner John Dolan and Sam Chartier.
Petleshkov and Garcia will resume the heads-up dual at 1 PM PT.
Heads-Up Chip Counts
- Viliyan Petleshkov – 8,715,000
- Cesar Garcia – 5,480,000
Event #24: Jason Mercier Grabs Second Bracelet of 2016 in $10K HORSE
Over the last eight days Jason Mercier has entered three $10,000 buy-in Championship events, held the chip lead at the start of Day 3 in each of them, won two bracelets and finished runner-up in a third. He grabbed the second of those two bracelets late Friday after coming back to beat James Obst heads-up in the $10,000 HORSE event.
“This is so sweet. I don’t even know what’s happening. This is the craziest week of my life, which is hard to imagine because when I was 21 I won $1.4 million and got stabbed that same night,” said Mercier. “So to have a crazier week than that is unbelievable.”
Mercier entered this tournament almost immediately after losing to Ray Dehkharghani heads-up in the $10,000 Razz event.
“I hopped in this tournament at the absolute latest point. I was pretty, not upset, just kinda felt like I missed an opportunity when I was heads-up in the Razz,” admitted Mercier. “I hopped in the HORSE, put my headphones on and was kinda like ‘man I don’t even really wanna be here’ and I dunno, just tried to stay in the zone, focus and play well and ended up bagging some chips.”
Mercier, who has multiple prop bets on winning one, two and three bracelets this summer won $422,874 while Obst had to settle for $261,354. Mercier now has five career bracelets.
That would be #5 …2nd one this summer.
Shipped the 10k horse for 422k and a ton more on the side. #TwoDownOneToGo pic.twitter.com/75mXHAdmVF
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) June 18, 2016
Final Table Payouts
- Jason Mercier – $422,874
- James Obst – $261,354
- Nick Schulman – $183,779
- Adam Friedman – $131,519
- Mikhail Semin – $95,817
- Jesse Martin – $71,089
- Yuval Bronshtein – $53,729
- Bryn Kenney $41,383
Event #25: Michael Scarborough Leads Final 24 in $2,500 No Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event started with 229 players all vying for the bracelet and $448,463 first place prize money. After 10 levels of play on Friday just 24 players remain with Michael Scarborough on top after bagging up the only stack over 1 million.
Scarborough finished with 1,004,000. Remi Castaignon (950,000) and Daniel Cooke (848,000) are the two players closest to Scarborough.
Other notables still in contention include former EPT Grand Finale and WSOP Europe winner Adrian Mateos (674,000, Niall Farrell (639,000), Jordan Young (595,000) and former PocketFives #1-ranked Taylor Paur (561,000).
Some of the Day 2 casualties include Jonathan Duhamel, Bart Lybaert, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Aaron Massey, and Daniel Negreanu.
The final 24 players resume at Noon PT with the intention of playing down to a winner.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Michael Scarborough – 1,004,000
- Remi Castaignon – 950,000
- Daniel Cooke – 848,000
- Darryll Fish – 835,000
- Adrian Mateos – 674,000
- Gavin O’Rourke – 659,000
- Niall Farrell – 639,000
- Shankar Pillai – 602,000
- Jordan Young – 595,000
- Zu Zhou – 592,000
Event #26: Brandon Shack-Harris Leads $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo
Day 2 of the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event began with 256 players and ended with just 27. Leading that group is former WSOP Player of the Year runner-up Brandon Shack-Harris, who bagged up 830,000 at the end of the night.
Shack-Harris’ lead over the rest of the field is impressive. Benjamin Gold is the only other player to finish over the 500,000 mark. The rest of the top 10 survivors ended with between 300,000 and 463,000.
Other notables among the final 27 include Phillip Hui, Max Pescatori, Benny Glaser and Ari Engel.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Brandon Shack-Harris – 830,000
- Benjamin Gold – 566,000
- Ilya Krupin – 463,000
- Joe Ford – 459,000
- Frankie O’Dell – 454,000
- Francesco Barbaro – 420,000
- Steve Chanthabouasy – 415,000
- Phillip Hui – 319,000
- William Kakon – 316,000
- Jussi Nevanlinna – 302,000
Event #27: Records Broken as Nearly 4,500 Players Pack Seniors Championship
While Las Vegas hosts the Electronic Daisy Carnival and youngsters turn their attention there, the WSOP instead focuses on a weekend for the older set. Friday was Day 1 of the $1,000 buy-in Seniors Championship open only to player 50 and older.
A record-sized field of 4,499 showed up on Friday for the largest Seniors event in WSOP history. While the event usually attracts amateur players from across the United States, there are a number of familiar faces in the field. Included in the group is John Gale, Mark Kroon, Toto Leonidas, Billy Baxter and brother of eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel, Jeb Seidel.
The overnight chip leader is Robert Campbell. He finished with 148,700.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Robert Campbell – 148,700
- Fred Berger – 137,400
- Jeanluc Adam – 125,700
- Mark Eastham – 123,100
- Peter Smaha – 119,900
- Michael Santos – 119,700
- Deborah Fineberg – 115,300
- Viktor Pabst – 110,900
- Ronald Sewell – 110,300
- Terry Williams – 110,000
Event #28: Nick Abou Risk Leads After Day 1 of $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship
For the first time in over a week a $10,000 Championship event made it through Day 1 without Jason Mercier in the field. It’s not that he was eliminated, but with the $10,000 HORSE event running longer than expected he wasn’t able to enter.
There were a total of 110 players that did manage to get into the event including Irish pro Nick Abou Risk, who finished Day 1 with 348,500 good enough for a lead over other top five stacks including Alex Luneau (327,000) David Chiu (239,500) and Brian Rast(203,500).
Just 41 players survived the opening day of play. Other notables still in the hunt include Howard Lederer, Dzimitry Urbanovich, Marco Johnson and the player with the smallest advancing stack, Matt Glantz.
Day 2 gets underway on Saturday at 2 PM PT and will play another ten levels in pursuit of the bracelet and the $290,635 first place prize money.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Nick Abou Risk – 348,500
- Alex Luneau – 327,000
- Samuel Golbuff – 252,000
- David Chiu – 239,500
- Brian Rast – 203,500
- Matthew Davidow – 202,000
- Sean Berrios – 195,000
- Mark Radoja – 188,000
- Alexey Makarov – 186,500
- Brock Parker – 177,000
