PokerStarsBlog.com :: Jason Mercier

WCOOP 2010: I'm pumped for WCOOP

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:24:02 -0800

by Jason Mercier
I just recently glanced over the PokerStars WCOOP schedule and it got me pretty excited. With just a few weeks before WCOOP starts, I will need to figure out which events I will be playing. I will be trying to balance playing WCOOPs along with playing live, while possibly being in Europe for the entire duration of WCOOP. This will make it more difficult with the time difference, but I'm up for the challenge.

I plan on playing all the biggest buy-in WCOOPs, possible, even trying my hand at the $25k heads-up for the first time. I'm very excited for the last few days of events when there is a $2k PLO 6 max, $2k horse, $10k 8 game and the $5k Championship event!

Not only have I never won a WCOOP event, I have never even final tabled one. I think that this is going to be my year. I'm feeling and hoping for a strong showing in this year's WCOOP.

The structures are so great and the variety of tournaments is so amazing, it's such an awesome experience just playing in the WCOOP on Pokerstars.

But this year... I WANT TO WIN!

Visit the official WCOOP site to see how you can take part.

Negreanu just misses WSOPE title, breaks money record

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:49:05 -0800

Under almost any different set of circumstances, Daniel Negreanu would've been down the street at the Cafe de Paris where the EPT London revelers were lubricating their minds and joints at the European Poker Tour welcome party. On any other night, Negreanu would've been on the mic, glad-handing in the crowd, and getting ready to play in the EPT Main Event.

Instead, he was a few blacks away from the Piccadilly Circus party and playing for the World Series of Poker Europe bracelet.

By the time the party was winding down, fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier shuffled in, having finished fourth for £267,267. The crowd gave him the proper respect at his nearly capturing another major title. With Mercier gone, the PokerStars loyalists and Negreanu fans began to get excited.

As it happened, Negreanu had started the WSOPE final table as the shortest stack. Over more than a dozen grueling hours had worked himself back up to the lead, and eventually heads up against CardPlayer magazine chief Barry Shulman.

When most of the EPT partiers were heading to bed, Schulman had taken a nearly 5-1 chip lead and the tournament looked to be at its end for Kid Poker. Instead,he came back, took over the chip lead, and had his hands on the bracelet.

One big hand made all the difference. With the money in on the flop, Negreanu was behind with top-pair of jacks and a queen kicker, up against Schulman's overpair of aces. When Kid Poker spiked a jack on the turn, it looked as if we's see another bracelet on Negreanu's wrist. The ace on the river was about as crushing a blow as Negreanu could expect to handle.

He never recovered. A few minutes later, the told the world via Twitter the hand "will make you hate poker."

By sun-up this morning, Negreanu watched the bracelet handed to Schulman. Gracious in defeat, Negreanu took his second place spot and £495,589 in prize money.

Though there is no discounting the disappointment Negreanu is experiencing this morning, he can take some heart that he is now poker's all-time tournament money winner. It's not a bracelet, but it's something.

Congratulations to both Negreanu and Mercier for outstanding performances in the WSOPE.

2009 WCOOP: Mercier looking for breakout performance

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:10:24 -0800

Jason Mercier wins. That's what he does. Put him on the EPT, he wins. Put him in the WSOP, he wins. Play him in a game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O, he'll win. That said, despite his many years on PokerStars, he has yet to go really, really deep in a World Championship of Online Poker event. As he explains below, he's ready to change that tout suite.

by Jason Mercier

As the start of the WCOOP gets closer and closer, I am getting more and more anxious. I have looked over the schedule and planned out what events I will be playing. This year's WCOOP has even more events and more of a variety of events to choose from than last year. I hope to play around 25 events this year. Last year I was travelling in Europe during the entire WCOOP and played very few events. This year I am really looking forward to playing more than half the events.

I haven't had much success in previous WCOOPs, which is one of the reasons that I am so motivated this year. My best result in any WCOOP event so far was getting 50th in a 1k WCOOP event in 2007. I am going to be in Barcelona for the EPT for the first week of this year's WCOOP, so I am planning on only playing a few of the WCOOPs while there, but will be playing almost every event starting September 11th when I arrive home.

When starting a WCOOP, you have to understand that these tournaments take much longer than a standard online MTT. It's a much slower structure and a lot of times the stacks are much deeper. If you're not used to playing long hours, get ready, because you're in for a wild ride if you go deep in a WCOOP event.

Winning a WCOOP bracelet would mean a lot to me. I have been playing on PokerStars ever since I started playing poker. It was the first site that I ever played on, and it's the only site I play on now. Winning a WCOOP bracelet is one of the things that I have not done yet in my poker career, and that makes it one of my most important goals I hope to accomplish.

Jason Mercier is a member of Team PokerStars Pro USA. WCOOP starts September 3.