PokerWorks

The World Series of Poker in 2003 made history, due to an unknown rookie online player with the media perfect name of Chris Moneymaker, who took the top spot and $2,500,000 along with it. But that year has also gone down in poker history as the year of the huge poker boom, seeing a worldwide surge of new online players. When Moneymaker’s amazing feat was televised, thousands of would be poker players jumped into seats online, hoping to follow in the new World Champ’s footsteps. One of these new hopefuls was a young college student named Jason Mercier.

Mercier’s poker road began in home games with friends until he discovered PokerStars while attending college. Over the next few years, Mercier proved he had what it takes, when he started racking up tournament wins and creaming his competition in the cash games. The would-be math teacher did so well he became only the 16th player ever to achieve the status of PokerStars Supernova Elite.

In April of 2008, Mercier decided it was time to test the waters of live tournaments and the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo event was his arena. This unknown young man with the superior online poker skills came out of nowhere and crushed the field of 700 to walk away with the title and $1,372,893. Even though Mercier was impressive in his first WPT event, no one could have dreamed of what a year this live venue rookie had ahead of him.

A few months later, Mercier went to Barcelona to try for the EPT title, barely missing the mark, he came in sixth and earned $324,946. From there he was off to London to try his hand at the World Series of Poker Europe where he finished eighth in the £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. Just one short month later, Mercier was back in London, this time for the EPT High Roller event where he wasted some of the biggest names in poker and snagged $944,847 for his victory.

To anyone who was paying attention, it was obvious this kid was no flash in the pan and there would be no stopping him.

And to prove it, 2009 saw Mercier becoming a familiar face in the winners’ circle when he made two final tables at the L.A. Poker Classic in February, one of which was the Pot Limit Omaha event where he finished in the top spot for $35,577. The other was a fourth place finish for $71,392 in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event. On the heels of his victories in Los Angeles, CA, Mercier flew to take his seat at the $1,000 Hold’em event at the Wynn Classic in Las Vegas. There he added another win notch to his belt and $81,480 to his bankroll when he won the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event.

Now Mercier knew it was time for his run with the big dogs – The 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas.
His hunch paid off in spades. When the dust settled, Mercier was sporting his first gold bracelet and counting his $237,462 that he won in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. He also entered the $10,000 World Championship Heads-Up event where he took 16th for $38,424 and then just to prove he could, he also cashed in three other WSOP events.

With a record like this, it is obvious why PokerStars recruited this poker shooting star to be a Team PokerStars Pro. Mercier spends the majority of his time at the poker tables, where he plays on PokerStars under the name ‘JasonMercier,’ but when he does take a break from the game, he likes to hang out at the beach, spend time with family and friends, play basketball and watch sports.

The poker world is keeping their eye on this new rising poker star because as Jason Mercier has proved in just a little over a year, he will no doubt continue hurtling through the poker universe like a comet.