There is something about Jason Mercier and Europe. The Florida native, who excels when he decided to play online poker, is also a solid live player, however, he’s at his best when he goes to Europe. After day 4 of the World Series of Poker Europe Mercier ended the day as an overwhelming chip leader. The recent coverboy of Cardplayer magazine continues to stay on his heater.
In a final table chock full of stories, Mercier’s may not be the most compelling but him and a mountain of chips has to be the most intimidating. James Akenhead a November Niner who duplicated Ivan Demidov’s feat of last year, final tabling a WSOP main event while on break before the final table of another WSOP Main Event, is second in chips. Akenhead sits on 1.4 million while Mercier has nearly 3.2 million chip.
The rest of the chip stacks before the final table: Praz Banzii 1.16 million, Barry Shulman (father of another November Niner Jeff Shulman I’ll get to that) 1.09 million, Markus Ristola 784k, Antoine Saout (another November Niner) 701k chips, Matt Hawrilenko 674k, Chris Bjorin 518k, and Daniel Negreanu 438k.
In a final table filled with November Nine players and connections, perhaps Phil Ivey can find a model to follow in his friend Daniel Negreanu. If Negreanu can overcome a much shorter stack than the one Ivey has anything is possible. Even if Negreanu can’t do it he is at least guaranteed at 66k pounds for ninth place.
The winner will pocket over 800k pounds and perhaps more importantly to Negreanu a the World Series of Poker bracelet. Not only that, Negreanu can also pass both his friend Ivey and Jaime Gold in the all time tournament winnings category. So there are incentives galore for Kid Poker, who final tabled the WSOPE last year too.
James Akenhead and Antoine Saout, the London Niners who are “November Niners” have the chance to win two WSOP main events in the same year and one up Demidov’s achievement last year. Not to be forgotten Hawrilenko, is gunning for his second bracelet of the year after winning one in Vegas this summer.
The Shulmans, father Barry fourth in chips, can father-son two Main Events, with son Jeff waiting for the WSOP Main Event break to end. He’s also hired Phil Hellmuth to coach him. No word yet if Barry plans on keeping his WSOP-E bracelet should he win or not.