Shak Beats Mercier in Massive Pot

Happy_Freaked

Pot-Limit Omaha

We just saw one of the biggest pots of the tournament go down between Jason Mercier and Dan Shak. Shak was drawing slim for his tournament life, but he got there on the river.

Shak was under the gun and decided to limp for 1,600, after which Lyle Berman called in the hijack, Vladimir Shchmelev from the cutoff and Allen Bari from the button. Marco Johnson folded from the small blind and Mercier checked his option in the big blind.

The flop came down {10-Spades} {Q-Diamonds} {4-Hearts} , and the action was checked to Berman who bet 8,000. Shchmelev and Bari folded after which Mercier put in a raise to 31,000.

"I raise pot," Shak announced ,and the total bet was 110,800. Berman took a good long look at his cards, but eventually decided not to get involved in this massive pot.

"All in," Mercier announced without hesitation, and Shak called off his remaining 74,000 chips.

Jason Mercier
Dan Shak

Shak was looking to make a straight or a bigger set, but the turn, the {6-Spades} , brought him no help. On the river Shak needed to catch a nine, ace or king but those couldn't be spades since Mercier had picked up a flush draw.

The river was the {9-Clubs} and Shak did make his straight. Just for a second Mercier showed some frustration as Shak was excited about his double up. Mercier sat in silence and was knocked back down to around the starting stack, while Shak is now one of our chip leaders.