Jason Mercier’s Big World Series of Poker Brings Lifetime Earnings To $17 Million

Did anyone have a better summer than Jason Mercier? The Florida poker pro cashed 11 times at the World Series of Poker, made four final tables, and won his fourth and fifth career bracelets. He totaled $960,424 in earnings and much, much more in side bets, most notably at the expense of Vanessa Selbst. He also doubled up by proposing to his girlfriend Natasha Barbour at her own final table. She said yes.

Mercier has now bumped his lifetime earnings to just over $17 million, which is good for 13th place on the all-time leaderboard. The Team PokerStars Pro is indeed running hot in all areas of his life and Card Player caught up with him to discuss his epic summer and how he stays motivated to grind after nine non-stop years on the tournament circuit.

Card Player: You’re known as one of the ultimate grinders, who is constantly on the road at one tournament destination after another and plays all the games. This summer you even went so far as to play multiple events at the same time.

Jason Mercier: I think that’s fair. I would guess that I’ve probably played more hands of poker than anyone, when you combine live and online, in the last ten years. I’ve probably played more high-stakes live tournaments than anyone else as well.

CP: You won WSOP Player of the Year and it got you some mainstream attention from The Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN. Unfortunately, the host felt the need to compare you to a degenerate gambling addict.

JM: Yeah, that was… unfortunate.

CP: But you do have a pretty strong work ethic when it comes to your schedule.

JM: I am itching to play some poker. But I’m not itching to get back into a casino and blow a bunch of money in the pit. I haven’t played any poker besides open-face Chinese on my phone in almost two weeks, so my blood is starting to boil. I once took a two month break and when I came back, I felt like I had never played poker before. That’s why I’m always playing the game, watching the game, and thinking about the game.

CP: It definitely shows in your results. Your absolute worst year on the circuit, you still managed to cash for more than $520,000. In fact, you’ve won at least seven figures in eight of your nine years on tour. We’ve seen a lot of players put together a good year or two, but how do you maintain that level of consistency?

JM: I wish I had a better answer. I think partially because of my ability to play non-stop. A lot of these guys go through a hot streak and all of a sudden they are ready to kick their feet up. Or maybe they think they have it all solved. But for me, I have these financial goals I’m trying to achieve and I don’t ever want to get rusty.

CP: So is it all about the money? You have five bracelets at the age of 29, does that make you want to chase more?

JM: It’s mostly about the money. If I saw myself being this grinder for the rest of my life, then I’d be the guy hashtagging all my tweets with #ChasingHellmuth or something like that. I know that having five at 29 is a good start, but realistically, I don’t see myself playing a full schedule at the WSOP for the next 20 years. And that’s what I think it would take to catch Hellmuth, because he’s not going to stop playing and he’s still going to win one every few years. It’s very important to him, but I don’t care about it as much. My goal is to make money and set myself up for the future so that I can post up in here in Florida, start a family, and actually be around when they need me.

CP: Can you talk about your summer and how it went for you?

JM: It was definitely the most financially successful summer of my career. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to Vegas and made more than $700,000 in a summer, and I obviously did better than that this year. It was also the first time I won multiple bracelets, which was an incredible feeling. I even won in the cash games. I think I played 10 or 11 sessions and only had one small losing session of about $15,000.

Almost everything went right for me this summer. The only thing that would have made it absolutely perfect would have been to win that third bracelet and scoop all the rest of my bets. But I completely realize nobody is going to cry for me. I won a ton of money and got my fourth and fifth bracelet, so I have no complaints.

CP: So… how much did you win?

JM: (Laughing) How much did I win? I won a little bit. It was in the seven-figure range. You can call it a few million, or something like that. I’m not going to get specific.

CP: Okay, how about this? How much more would you have won had you beaten Ray Dekharghani heads-up in the $10,000 razz event?

JM: I calculated at that point in the tournament that I basically missed out on close to $1 million in equity, just based on money that I would have won right away for my second bracelet. Obviously it would have been worth a lot more knowing now that it would have been my third of the summer. I had a lot of bets. Some were based specifically on winning two bracelets, others were for each bracelet I won.

But it’s also hard to just say, “Oh, if only I had won the razz event, then I would have won three bracelets.” Well, I think if I win the razz event, then there’s a very good chance I don’t win the H.O.R.S.E. event. If we had even played that much longer heads-up, I might not have even been able to register for that H.O.R.S.E. event. So I can’t really look at that heads-up match and be too disappointed or think about what if.

CP: Do you think the bracelet bets helped your game in any way?

JM: The bets are all about motivation. If bracelet bets were illegal, then I certainly wouldn’t be playing a full schedule every summer. I’d play probably half as many events, nothing under $5,000 and I definitely wouldn’t play two at the same time. But with the bets, there’s that added incentive to put my grind helmet on and see how much I can handle.

CP: After your run this summer, Card Player had people on its social media posts calling you everything from “the best tournament player in the world” to “the luckiest player in the world.” Where do you see yourself in the poker hierarchy?

JM: I guess I’m just the luckiest, best player of all time. (Laughing) It’s really hard to answer this question and be humble at the same time, but obviously I think I’m one of the best tournament players. One thing that I am proud of is that of all of the other top tournament players, I think I’m one of the few who can play all of the games really well. I think that separates me from some of the no-limit hold’em specialists you see at the top of the rankings.

It’s also very helpful during the summer, when there are so many non-hold’em events to play in. If you look at the guys in the field in these $10,000 limit events, most of them aren’t the guys who are traveling the circuit and playing tournaments every weekend. So I think I have that extra edge of being a good mixed-games player and a good tournament player.

CP: Do you find that good tournament strategy trumps something like stud eight-or-better strategy or vice versa?

JM: You really need to be good at both. The more tournament experience you have the better you can understand things like short stack theory and how to save a bet, which you can apply to any game. A guy can be an expert in stud eight-or-better strategy, but if he doesn’t understand how to adjust when the blinds go up or a table gets shorthanded, then he’s going to struggle.

One of the reasons why I felt so sharp this summer is because I spent the two weeks before the WSOP playing every day on PokerStars. I think I played all of the events in the SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) and it was the perfect warmup because I was able to play every poker game in every tournament format.

CP: Not only did you dominate on the felt this summer, but you also managed to get engaged. I think you won over even your most stubborn haters when you proposed at Natasha’s final table.

JM: To be honest, my original thought was that I was going to propose after the summer was over. I didn’t even have a ring yet, which is kind of essential to the whole proposal thing. But after I won the second bracelet of the summer, I went out and bought a ring just in case I won another. I figured if I won the third, then that would be the most epic moment to do it.

But it turns out that winning a third bracelet was pretty hard to do. I got an eighth, and an 11th and a bunch of other cashes, but then she won her first table in the shootout event. So I told myself that if she made the final table I would propose there. It turns out that she lost heads-up at her second table, so it went back on my shoulders. But then she made the final table of the $5,000 event and I knew as long as she didn’t suffer some horrendous bad beat to bust, I was going propose.

CP: I saw you sweating her at that final table, and you looked more nervous than she did.

JM: I was definitely sweating it harder than I would be if I was playing it myself. With two tables left she was pretty short and got it in with A-K against jacks. She ended up rivering the king and even though it was a very standard flip, I couldn’t help but go ballistic. I don’t think I would ever make that reaction unless it was an online tournament and nobody could see me.

CP: Natasha is a very accomplished poker pro with seven figures in tournament earnings herself. Does it help that your fiancé is also a poker player or do you sometimes feel like you can’t escape from the game?

JM: I’ve been on both sides of that one. It was just so much different when I started dating Natasha, who not only understands poker, but she’s also just a very understanding person. In past relationships, I used to have a lot of small confrontations about playing too much or being gone too long. But it was very refreshing with Natasha, who loves the lifestyle and is incredibly supportive. And she understands that I’m going to have bad days when I lose and that sometimes, the game is just too good to leave.

It also really helps that she loves to travel, because I dread it. We’re packing for Barcelona, which is actually my favorite tournament stop, and I’m hating the thought of getting on a plane. But Natasha is so excited to go that I can’t help but also get a little excited as well, even though I’ve been there seven times. She’s really good at putting me in a better mood.

CP: You’ve been on top for so many years, there’s got to be some super-secret part of your game that you aren’t sharing with the world.

JM: (Laughing) I don’t think it’s a crazy thought that the best players in the world are probably holding some things back, but I also don’t think that we have some secret formula for winning that we just aren’t telling people about. Over the last decade in various interviews, I really haven’t discussed why I do the things I do at the table, but I can assure you it’s not magic. I just play better than most of the people I play against, and that translates into winning money and tournaments. ♠

Mercier’s WSOP Final Tables

2008 £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8th Place £26,812
2008 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 1st Place $237,462
2009 £10,000 Main Event 4th Place £267,267
2011 $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 7th Place $10,524
2011 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 1st Place $619,575
2011 $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw 6th Place $25,967
2012 $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8th Place $72,132
2012 £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 9th Place £12,245
2012 £10,000 Main Event 8th Place £84,672
2013 £1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 4th Place £23,036
2014 $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 3rd Place $99,313
2015 $5,000 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em 1st Place $633,357
2015 $50,000 Poker Players Championship 7th Place $139,265
2015 $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 2nd Place $572,989
2016 $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 1st Place $273,335
2016 $10,000 Razz 2nd Place $168,936
2016 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. 1st Place $422,874
2016 $10,000 Omaha Eight-Or-Better 8th Place $39,269