Double Vision: Jason Mercier Wins Second Gold Bracelet of the 2016 WSOP, Fifth Overall

June 18, 2016

Donnie Peters

No, this isn't a repeat. Jason Mercier has in fact won another gold bracelet at the 2016 World Series of Poker. It's his second of the summer, and he earned it after topping his third final table over the past week in the 171-player $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

Mercier defeated James Obst for the title on the second-to-last hand of the night on Friday and scored $422,874. If Mercier and Obst played two more hands on Friday night, play would have been stopped and the duo would have to return on Saturday to finish it off.

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Jason Mercier	$422,874
2	James Obst	$261,354
3	Nick Schulman	$183,779
4	Adam Friedman	$131,519
5	Mikhail Semin	$95,817
6	Jesse Martin	$71,089
7	Yuval Bronshtein	$53,729
8	Bryn Kenney	$41,383

Mercier entered the third day of play with the chip lead, reigning over the final 14 players. It was his third $10,000 championship-level final table within a week. As Lance Bradley, President and Editor-in-Chief of PocketFives.com tweeted, Mercier has had the chip lead to start Day 3 in each of these three-day events. In two of them, he's won gold bracelets, but let's not forget about the second-place finish squeezed in the middle.

It was all smooth sailing for Mercier, though. He held onto the lead for quite some time, but eventually started the slide and even dropped to be one of the shortest stacks left during five- and -six-handed play.

Then, in a hand of limit hold'em, Mercier made quads and started an impressive comeback.

Jesse Martin busted in sixth, Mikhail Semin hit the rail in fifth, and Adam Friedman was bounced in fourth, leaving Mercier to battle with Obst and Nick Schulman.

Schulman went bust in third place, though, scoring $183,779 and leaving Mercier and Obst. When heads-up play began, Obst had a big lead of nearly 3-1 — Obst's 6.23 million to Mercier's 2.325 million.

That lead increased almost immediately, and Mercier was knocked down a little below 1 million in chips. That proved to be his low point, and from there Mercier went on a great run. In under and hour, he had returned to the chip lead. The two swapped the lead twice more, and then Mercier began to pull away for good.

Mercier closed out Level 26 on a rush that had Obst with little left to play with. In Level 27, with the betting limits up to 200,000/400,000, it all came to an end.

Down to just a couple hundred thousand in chips, Obst was all in with the Q♠J♦ in a hand of limit hold'em. Mercier had the 5♣3♥ and flopped an open-ended straight draw on the 10♦4♠2♥ flop. The A♦ turn gave Mercier a wheel, but Obst still had outs to a Broadway straight. The 2♠ on the river paired the board, changed nothing, and Obst was eliminated in second place.