Jason Mercier Dominates ESPN WSOP Europe Main Event Coverage

ESPN2’s coverage of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event continued on Sunday night, as Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier delivered knockout after knockout. Two more episodes remain and will air on February 28th.

After receiving a massive bankroll boost courtesy of Viktor Blom to close out last week’s installment of WSOP Europe on ESPN2 coverage, Ian Munns entered as the chip leader with 94 players to go. One-third of the field was American, while one-quarter was British. The feature table on the first episode included Munns, bracelet winner Praz Bansi, and poker veteran Steve Zolotow. Munns set the tone by knocking out James Keys early on with pocket sevens against Keys’ A-K.

Over at Table 2, Daniel Negreanu, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Leo Margets were camped out. The former sent Kim Wooka to the rails with pocket jacks after turning a set. Elsewhere in the Casino at the Empire, DoylesRoom pro Todd Brunson was eliminated with pocket tens against David Docherty’s jacks. Also sent packing was Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, who came out on the short end of a race with A-K of spades against Steve Fung’s pocket tens.

Doyle Brunson doubled up to 130,000 after his pocket aces withstood A-K. Brunson had only looked at one card pre-flop and, in a scene reminiscent of the Caesars Cup, found a matching ace in the hole upon further review. Defending WSOP Europe Main Event champion John Juanda was not as fortunate, hitting the rails with A-K against Matt Hawrilenko’s pocket sevens.

Another former champion fell during the first hour of ESPN2’s coverage, as Betfair’s Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad was all-in with Q-J, but could not overcome the A-K of CardRunners’ instructor Eric Liu. The bubble boy in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event was its 2007 runner-up, Betfair pro John “Kunkuwap” Tabatabai. Peter Gould cracked his pocket aces holding pocket sevens and, just like that, the field had reached the money.

Episode 2 began with David “Devilfish” Ulliott, namesake of Devilfish Poker, hitting the rails with K-9 of spades against former English soccer star Teddy Sheringham’s A-Q. ESPN announcer Norman Chad assessed, “This table just got a little less profane.” Meanwhile, the elder Brunson doubled up again, this time at the expense of Nguyen. Brunson was all-in with A-10 against Nguyen’s A-Q and flopped trips.

Christian “charder30” Harder hit the rails after Thomas Bichon’s pocket queens drew out on Harder’s pocket kings. Nguyen soon followed after turning two pair against Negreanu’s set. Then, Mercier’s reign of terror hit full stride, as he knocked out Fung with pocket tens against A-10. Meanwhile, CardPlayer Magazine owner Barry Shulman, in one of his first appearances on ESPN’s cameras, vaulted to third on the leaderboard after making a straight on the river against Craig Burgess.

As the third episode began, Mercier held the chip lead with 18 players remaining. The feature table consisted of five bracelet winners, while Table 2 housed the field’s young guns. Mercier made a series of well-timed bluffs to catapult his stack, while Brunson departed in 17th place after his Q-9 fell short of James Akenhead’s A-K. Fellow November Nine member Antoine Saout doubled up with pocket fives against Saar Wilf’s pocket sevens after spiking a two-outer on the turn. The hand put Saout in third place.

Sheringham sent Ram Vaswani packing in 15th place with pocket eights against 10-9 before Mercier eliminated him in 14th. In Sheringham’s final hand, the local hero was all-in and dominated with K-Q against A-K; Mercier flopped an ace and never looked back. Akenhead hit a runner-runner flush to oust Tony Cousineau in 13th place and then sent Bichon to the exits with pocket kings against pocket tens. Akenhead, a former train conductor playing on his home soil, claimed the third largest stack when the WSOP Europe Main Event final table reached nine players.

The final knockout belonged to Mercier, who sent Liu away in tenth place. Liu pushed with pocket queens and Mercier made the call with K-J of clubs. Mercier flopped a king and a royal flush draw, boosting his stack to 3.2 million, or one-third of the chips in play.

2009 WSOP Europe Main Event coverage concludes on Sunday, February 28th with two one-hour episodes beginning at 9:00pm ET.

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Poker jargon:

BUTTON CHARGE - A periodic fee paid by whoever is the button, perhaps every 20 minutes or 30 minutes. Constitutes part or all of the HOUSE CUT.
UNDER THE GUN - The position that has to act first in a round of betting.
TRIPS - Three of a kind. In Hold'em the term SET is used when two of the three cards are hole cards.
JOKER - A 53rd card in the deck, distinct from the others, used as a wild card or as a BUG.
DECLARE - In high/low games, declaring one's hand as high or low or both ways (usually done with chips in hand). Usually played in home games; casinos tend to play CARDS SPEAK.
SHARK - A good/crafty player often posing as a fish early in the game.

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