Seat 4: Jason Mercier -- 4,165,000
Last year, it was Justin Bonomo's name popping up all over the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo? Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. This year, it's Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier who is taking the entire festival by storm.
To begin the series, Mercier won the €2,150 OPen-Face Chinese Poker event for €48,000, a game he is widely considered the best player in. To follow that up, Mercier final tabled the €10,000 Main Event and won another €137,000 after finishing in seventh place. Now, he's the chip leader entering the €100,000 Super High Roller final table by more than 2 million in chips.
Mercier will be the first to admit that he didn't have the best 2012, as evidence by this entry on the PokerStars Blog, but that hasn't deterred him from buckling down and pushing even harder this year. In fact, by making the money here in this event, Mercier has already made more in 2013 than he cashed for in the entire year of 2012. Given the sizable chip lead he holds, that number only looks like it's going to increase.
Over his career, Mercier has an EPT title, two World Series of Poker gold bracelets and a few wins in high roller events. One of the latter came in the final month of 2011 when he won the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic $100,000 Super High Roller for over $700,000.
While Mercier is no stranger to the felt, momentum and confidence can mean a lot in poker. Despite a lack-luster 2012, this EPT Grand Final serves as a big, fat "I'm back!" calling for Mercier to the rest of the poker world, and it's coming at just the right time of the year.
Following his finish here — whatever that ends up being — Mercier plans to grind as many PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker events as he can before jetting off to Las Vegas for the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship and $100,000 Super High Roller. After those events, he'll hop back on a plane, leave the United States to grind the final events of SCOOP, and then return for the start of the 2013 WSOP. It's all about the "mashing" this year for Mercier, as he pushes harder to recover from last year's bashing.