Mercier Brings Home Second WSOP Bracelet this Year

20:11
18 Jun

Another day, another bracelet’ read the mocked up t-shirt Jason Mercier was wearing on a mocked-up magazine cover, but it’s just become real as the unstoppable poker machine took down his second event of the WSOP last night. In doing so, he pocketed not only the $422,874 first prize, but also moved one huge step closer to the $1.8million payday from his well-publicised prop bet with Vanessa Selbst.

---

That would be #5 ...2nd one this summer.

Shipped the 10k horse for 422k and a ton more on the side. #TwoDownOneToGopic.twitter.com/75mXHAdmVF

— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) 18 June 2016

tweeted Mercier, highlighting his 5th bracelet overall and the massive amount of cash he has just taken down in other side-bets, aside from the well-documented Selbst one.

Mercier has been on a real heater this series, opening his account by taking down the 2-7 No Limit Draw Championship a week ago, followed by a deep run in the 7-card Razz championship event –a run which prompted Vanessa Selbst to attempt a $100K buy-out of her bet. Mercier refused the offer, and a massive furore erupted online. Selbst claimed she was drunk when making the offer and tried to get out of it as early as the day after. Mercier was having none of it however, and said the bet would stand, obviously believing his odds were better than the 180-1 offer from Selbst.

Losing out heads-up to Ray Dehkharghani in the Razz finale, it seemed that Mercier had perhaps blown his chances and a lot of money besides. However, yesterday he entered the final table of the $10K H.O.R.S.E. as chip leader and, despite finding himself short-stacked at points, he eventually broke down the resistance of Aussie James Obst during heads-up play to land his 2nd bracelet. “Move over Phil Ivey. Sicko!” tweeted Remko Rinkema after Mercier’s unbelievable win, two 1st places and a 2nd with many events still to go being an incredible feat which very few have managed at a single WSOP.

---

Tom Schneider did something similar in 2007, with two wins and a fourth spot finish, and although several players have bagged 3 bracelets in a single series, none have managed it in the big $10K bracelet events. Mercier could actually break the record and snag 4 bracelets before the summer series is out given his amazing form and run of the cards. Meanwhile, the ‘Selbst sweat’ is no longer the biggest issue from the prop betting angle, as she has managed to sell off most of the action on the $1.8million-$10K bet she had with Mercier.

According to pocketfives.com, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald has bought out the action – at a price tag believed to be about the $100K which Mercier himself rejected. Commenting on the prop-bet, pocketfives stated yesterday that “Mercier claims it’s all in the past now after Selbst sold most of her action on the bet to Mike McDonald, adding, “It’s pretty much squashed I think,” said Mercier. “I know that she pretty much bought out or sold the bet, if I end up winning three I guess I’ll end up getting paid from somebody else."

Selbst herself has taken a huge amount of stick for claims she was too drunk to know what she was doing with her bet, despite having made a very similar bet with Dzmitry Urbanovich – again while drunk - two days prior to the Mercier offer. Two days ago she tweeted:

I lost almost 100k in buyouts and I still have many of you brilliant Twitter minds saying I welched on a bet. Autoblock mode engaged.

— Vanessa Selbst (@VanessaSelbst) 16 June 2016

She added in response to a question as to when she bought out, “I bought out long before any of this crap went down. Ppllike[sic] drama and they read what they wanted to from the situation.”

So, Mercier is running like a god, still has several $10K events ahead of him as well as many lesser buy-in bracelet-winning attempts, and stands to add a huge chunk to his already considerable fortune if he does manage to snag his 3rd bracelet. It might seem a bit obvious now, but I certainly won’t be betting against it happening!

="twitter-tweet">="twitter-tweet">