Its tough to imagine a player repeating and winning back to back titles in a high buy-in event these days. The fields are probably tougher than they’ve ever been, the players are busy and can’t always play the same schedules, and the events themselves change from year to year. But as it turns out, if you offer a High Roller event at your tournament series and Jason Mercier happens to be on the same continent, he will apparently find a way to not only get there and play the darn thing, but he’ll likely win it as well.
Mercier not only won this year’s NAPT Mohegan Sun High Roller event for the second straight year, but he added to an already impressive victory tally in these High Roller tournaments, which typically come right before or right after the Main Event in a given Tournament series. In addition to the 2011 Mohegan Sun title, Mercier also boasts High Roller crowns at EPT London (2008), NAPT Mohegan Sun (2010), and an 8th place finish at the PCA High Roller event in 2011. He has also shown versatility in his resume, with a $5,000 HORSE Victory to his credit at the 5 Diamond World Poker Classic in 2009.
This time around, Mercier not only had to survive the shootout format (win a single table sit and go to advance to the final table), but in doing so he collected the most bounties, picked up an additional bonus of $20,000 for that feat, and beat Eugene Katchalov heads-up for the title. Katchalov is not only a fellow Poker Stars pro with Mercier, but he is also one of the hottest tournament players on the planet at the moment, already boasting $1.7 Million in live earnings in 2011.
Mercier takes home $246,000 and another piece of Mohegan Sun hardware for his efforts. We have no doubt that the next time a High Roller event shows up on the Tournament calendar, we will hear Mercier’s name still listed as the finish line draws near. Congratulations to everyone who cashed in this year’s NAPT Mohegan Sun High Roller Event! Final Table results are listed below:
1. Jason Mercier – $246,000
2. Eugene Katchalov – $68,000
3. Michael Pesek – $70,000
4. Jonathan Jaffe – $54,000
5. Taylor von Kriegenbergh – $44,000
6. Jimmy Guinther – $42,000
7. Scott Blackman – $44,000
8. Micah Raskin – $46,000
9. Joe Sweeney – $52,000