Mercier Eliminated in Massive Clash with Esfandiari
The entire tournament floor has been silenced with the elimination of Jason Mercier. He and Antonio Esfandiari began the hand both over 10 million in chips and in the top five. At the end of the carnage, Mercier was left slinging his bag over his shoulder and quickly heading out the door. No one in the room had words for how big of a clash this really was.
After the first goup of players folded to Esfandiari, he raised on the button to 250,000. Mercier was in the small blind and put in a three-bet to 680,000. After Cary Katz got out of the way from the big blind, action fell back on Esfandiari.
Esfandiari took some time to himself and then four-bet to a nice, big 1.6 million. Mercier didn't flinch, but instead studied intently. He then fired back with a bigger bullet, five-betting to 2.89 million as if to say, "Your move, Antonio."
The man widely known as "The Magician" reached into his hat and pulled out 4.489 million rabbits for the six-bet. Mercier began the hand with a bit over 10 million in his stack and ripped it all into the middle. Esfandiari snap-called to create a ridiculously huge pot worth approximately 22 million in chips. Mercier was the player at risk, but Esfandiari would be extremely crushed if he were to lose this confrontation.
Esfandiari tabled the 
and Mercier turned over the 
with a dejected look on his face. After the 
flop, the look on Mercier's face only fell more empty as Esfandiari stayed in front.
Mercier was looking for a king, but the turn card was the 
and the room became dead silent waiting for the river. The only noise heard in the room was the slap of the final card off the deck — the 
— and Mercier extended his hand to Esfandiari before exiting to the rail.
With that pot, Esfandiari moved to into the chip lead, overtaking his good friend Brian Rast. He's currently the only player over 20 million.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
23,400,000 | 11,550,000 |
|
Busted |