Jason Mercier defeats the CEO & President of Sun Coast Resources, Kathy Lehne, to take the $727,500 first prize at the World Poker Tour Alpha8 event in St. Kitts.
Jason Mercier takes his total live earnings to $13.6m after capturing his first World Poker Tour (WPT) title of his career, in the $100,000 WPT Alpha8 Super High Roller event in St. Kitts.
The event attracted 11 players, and four re-entries, to create a total prize pool of $1,455,000. In Season I, Philipp Gruissem defeated 23 entrants to take home a seven figure score. This year there wasn’t a single German player in the field.
The field consisting of Mercier, Kathy Lehne, Antonio Esfandiari, Olivier Busquet, Jeff Gross, Michael Singh, Bill Perkins, Talal Shakerchi, Dan Colman, Alex Torelli and Tony Guglietti. It was an expensive time for Lehne (2 x bullets worth $200k), Perkins ($200k) and Esfandiari ($300k), and you could see how three bullets cost The Magician as he played most of the tournaments sat in his underpants.
Day 1 ended with nine players remaining in the tournament. Jeff Gross and Michael Singh both eliminated. Olivier Busquet led the final nine players, but would eventually bow out in the bubble position.
Colman exited in ninth after his AK got unlucky against Mercier’s AQ. A little lady turning up on the flop to send the greatest player of 2014 to the rail. Meditor Capital founder, Talal Shakerchi, was next to leave when he shoved with J9o, was called by the A8o of Torelli, the high hand held and Shakerchi was out.
Then Busquet asserted his dominance with two bust outs. Torelli was first to go when he ran ATss into the pocket sevens of Busquet. An ace on the flop gave Torelli a brief lead until a third seven landed on the turn; then Bill Perkins ran AJo into pocket kings.
Esfandiari, and his underpants, were next to leave. Pocket queens versus the AKo of Lehne, and the businesswoman rivered a wheel to send the eyesore to the stands. Busquet was next to hit the beach when his AJdd lost out in a race against the KQcc of Mercier; Guglietti would make a move with K3 on K87Q only for Mercier to call with KT for the higher kicker; and Lehne would lose all of her chips check-raise jamming on [Qd] [Qc] [5h] [7s] [8h], with [Th] [8d], only to be called down by the champion and his pocket aces.
Does Mercier’s victory now make him a Triple Crown winner, or are we going to be sensible about this and say a 15-entrant field is a tad small? I will let you all argue about that one.
The WPT Alpha8 returns to The Bellagio, Las Vegas, 18-20 Dec 2014, and then Florida 17-18 Jan 2015.
WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts Results
1st. Jason Mercier – $727,500
2nd. Kathy Lehne – $436,500
3rd. Tony Guglietti – $291,000
