The last time the EPT stopped by these parts it through up one of the most memorable finals of the EPT history book. Many more have since rivalled it but for season two it was something of a classic, and not just for the backdrop of chandelier elegance. Everyone at that final had a story...
A wave of British players recorded money cashes including fifth place Ram Vaswani, who by then was already on course to be one of the EPT's most storied players.
Then there was Russian Pro Kiril Gerasimov who memorably survived the tournament as the short stack for what nostalgia fans swear was about two and a half days - a masterful short stacked performance. At one stage in the final Gerasimov doubled he stack, up to 180,000 which remarkably was the most the Russian had had for the entire event. Yet he managed to finish third.
Then of course there was Mats Iremark, who finessed his way into an EPT title having played little of the game prior before evolving into one of the game's best online grinders.
There was another player there as well of course - Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle Mercier, who made the EPT final she had craved for so long having put in one of the performance of her career to achieve it.
Back then it was good for a seventh place finish. Now, who knows? She started today with an early double up and since then has shown no sign of letting up. She may be Canadian but this is as close to home turf as she gets on the EPT. It seems to be worth a few extra grand.
On a flop of Kh-5h-4c Mercier bet 2,200 from the cut off, called by the seat six player in early position. The turn came 7s which was again checked to Mercier who made it 3,800 this time, pausing only enough time to assemble the right collection of chips. Her opponent looked again, leaned over the table to count the bet, and called.
The river came 5c. Continuing in the same way the action was checked to Mercier who went back to her stack to fire out 5,600 this time. Unlike the last two street though this one is left to Mercier alone, her opponent mucking. A short victory dance and a stack of 35,000 now for Mercier.
