It's been 2,568 days since Jason Mercier last won a World Series of Poker bracelet. Today, that streak ended as Mercier outlasted a stacked final table in the $1,500 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw event.
In recent years, Mercier took a step back from live poker to focus on his family. Clearly, the time away from the felt hasn't impacted Mercier's ability to navigate tournament fields. 548 hopefuls entered the event, but, when all was said and done, Mercier held up the hardware and pocketed $151,276 for his efforts.
The full final table replay is available now on PokerGO's YouTube channel.
Mercier came into the five-handed final table sitting third in chips, with legends of the game Mike Watson and Erik Seidel sandwiching him in the chip counts. Seidel bowed out first, going from second in chips at the start of the final table to first man gone. His final hand, against Watson, saw Seidel make the correct decision to break his 10-9, but received no help from the deck and fell to Watson's 10-7.
Jon Turner, on the short stack, got his last chips in the middle against Brad Ruben, the table chip leader. Turner drew two, while Ruben stood pat with the 9-8. Again, the deck failed to bail out the all-in player and Turner's run came to an end.
Three-handed battle
Three-handed play began with stacks relatively even. Ruben held the chip lead, but not by much. Immediately, Mercier and Watson went to work at chipping up and taking from Ruben to further even out the stacks. Despite the outwardly light atmosphere, jokes and laughs abound, each of the final three were playing strong, not giving anything away.
Mercier took over the chip lead after about an hour of three-handed play. A courageous bluff attempt from Ruben saw Mercier's lead increase to more than a two-to-one advantage and Ruben assume the short stack. Ruben held tough, however, and managed to chip back up to move ahead of Watson.
Then, just as quickly, Ruben found himself short stacked again after an all-in confrontation against Watson, with both players drawing one card, ended with Ruben pairing up. Ruben, left with only three big blinds, managed to triple up on the very next hand to keep his bracelet hopes alive.
Ruben found himself all in once again not too long after his triple up. This time, however, the deck failed to bail him out and his hopes of another bracelet went up in smoke.
Heads-up rematch
With Ruben gone, Mercier and Watson started heads-up play with basically even stacks. In a strange twist of fate, this was the second time that the two had squared up against each other in a No Limit 2-7 Single Draw bracelet event. The last battle between Mercier and Watson came in the 2016 $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw. That match went Mercier's way as well, earning him his fourth bracelet at the time.
It took a little more than an hour to determine a winner as the stacks yo-yo-ed back and forth for a while. Both players showed their prowess in a game that rarely sees heads-up play outside of tournaments, but ultimately Mercier came out the victor.
Mercier joins the growing list of players who have won their sixth bracelet this year.
Final Seven payouts
- Jason Mercier, United States - $151,276
- Mike Watson, Canada - $93,495
- Brad Ruben, United States - $63,505
- Jon Turner, United States - $44,002
- Erik Seidel, United States - $31,114
- Richard Ashby, United Kingdom - $22,461
- Jonathan Glendinning, United States - $15,562
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