The big news from the weekend’s action over at the World Series of Poker is that PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier won his second gold bracelet of the 2016 WSOP as he took down Event #24: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. This brings his overall gold bracelet tally to five.
Mercier was not the only player to bag his second bracelet this weekend as Ian Johns won Event #28: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship, having previously won Event #8: $1500 H. O. R. S. E. early in the Series and bringing his overall gold bracelet total to three.
So far, Mercier and Johns are the only two players to have won two gold bracelets this year.
Mercier defeated Aussie James Obst heads up and collected $422,874 in prize money, which doesn’t include anything he had made from his side bracelet bets.
Shortly after his win Mercier said : “This feels amazing. Especially after all that’s happened this week. I’m so exhausted. But I also feel so much energy right now.” Last week Mercier had an epic week, winning 2 gold bracelets and also coming in second place in Event #20: $10,000 Seven Card Razz Championship.
With the WSOP nearing its midway point, there is still time for Mercier to hunt down his third bracelet.
Ian Johns was equally excited over his win, saying: “I’m ecstatic. It’s so far out there. I don’t even play in that many tournaments. I never dreamed of it. I never even thought about it.” He beat Sean Berrios from the Caribbean island of St. Croix who finished in second place.
Johns went on to say: “For me, Limit Hold’em is a super fun game because you are constantly making decisions. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. It’s very fast. The hands take 90 seconds instead of four minutes like in NoLimit. So, you just have so many opportunities to make these little incremental decisions. I have spent the last 12 years of my life trying to perfect those incremental decisions and that’s why I like it.”
More winners from the weekend
After adding in an extra day of action given the large field size, Calvin Lee won Event #21: $3000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em—winning a whopping $531,577 in the process. The 28 year old Korean born New Yorker has now won the first gold bracelet of his career.
Lee said on winning: “It comes in waves. The adrenaline rush is so sick. Even when I was losing, I was feeling amazing. What is it they say? The second best feeling in gambling is losing….but I kept my eye on the prize and I never gave up.”
Cesar Garcia from Spain (who currently lives in Wales in the UK) collected the top prize of $447,739 in Event #23: $2000 No-Limit Hold’em winning against Bulgarian, Viliyan Petleshkov. This is the first WSOP win for the Spaniard: “For me, this is a dream. It’s the most important thing you can do in the poker world” Garcia said after his win. “I am really proud. I love the series the place, the people. I am really happy to win. It is like a dream come true for me.”
Michael Gagliano, a poker pro from Rockaway, NJ won Event #25: $2500 No-Limit Hold’em and his first ever gold bracelet. “I’ve never won a live tournament before, at least nothing on this scale before,” Gagliano said after winning. “I came close a few times and definitely wanted to get a win, so it’s nice to get that over and done with.” Second place went to Daniel Cooke and third to Shankar Pillai.
Benny Glaser who hails from Southampton in the UK, won Event #26: $1500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better—he has now won a WSOP gold bracelet in two consecutive years having last year won the $1500 buy-in Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball event and is the first Brit to win a WSOP event this year. Glaser walks away with $244,103 in prize money after battling it out against Long Beach attorney Benjamin Gold who finished as runner up.
Events Finishing Today
The seniors event, Event #27: $1000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship wraps up today with Wesley Chong in the chip lead as six remain into the final day of action.
David Williams of MasterChef fame leads the pack as Event #29: $1500 No-Limit Hold’em heads into Day 3 with 1,209,000 chips. However Marino Mura is hot on his heel with 1,035,000 chips.
Event #30: $3000 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha finishes up today with 14 hopefuls battling it out. Viatcheslav Ortynskiy is leading the field as only player with over one million chips bagging 1,140,000.
Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier all busted out, not making it into the money.
