Home / Poker News October 2008 / Jason Mercier victorious in the EPT London £1 Million Showdown event
Jason Mercier victorious in the EPT London £1 Million Showdown event
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2008-10-07 14:20
The £20,000 buy-in
EPT London £1 Million showdown featured quite an exquisite field of 85 players to start with. After all, few everyday Joes could afford to spend that kind of money on a poker tournament, regardless of the potential prize-pool. Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and John Juanda all registered for the event, together with a host of other “name” pros. Very few of these guys would see Day 2 action at the tables though.
By the start of Day 2, only 14 players were still in the books, but one might as well have only considered 13 as Jani Sointula was barely hanging on by a thread on a stack of 6,500 chips. As soon as the action began, Sointula shoved all-in on the very first hand. His Ad, 3d was behind Andrew Feldman’s A,5, who called him and sent him to the rail when the board fell 7,Q,5,K,10. Even though he managed to eliminate an opponent, Feldman barely added to his stack, and thus soon found himself in the squeeze. He busted out 13th not long after he had sent Sointula to the rail.
Because of the relatively small field and the high stakes involved, the money bubble was basically the final table. Ghassan Bitar (who busted out in 12th) and Alexander Roumeliotis (who headed to the rail 11th) both missed the money.
Dennis Phillips became the bubble boy as he was eliminated by Isaac Haxton in 10th place, when his Q,9 failed to get lucky against Haxton’s A,4.
Isabelle Mercier was the first player to head to the payout booth after her elimination, for the £51,000 prize for her 9th place.
David Benyamine busted out 8th, after he ran into Michael Watson’s A,A, followed by Masaaki Kagawa in 7th.
Isaac Haxton did the same, running a pair of 8s into John Juanda’s rockets. Scotty Nguyen fell next, at the hands of Juanda, followed by Peter Jetten whose A,J failed to beat Mercier’s pocket 2s.
Michael Watson was the last player to say bye to the final table before the heads-up action between Juanda and Mercier began. Although he started with a slight lead over his opponent, Juanda failed to increase his edge, and eventually fell to Mercier’s nut straight, to finish second and to pocket a £327,000 prize.
