WSOP 2023 Day 31 Recap: Jason Mercier Wins Sixth WSOP Bracelet After Epic Final Table

Jason Mercier won his first WSOP bracelet in seven years, as the returning father of three won the No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Event #60 in stunning fashion, denying Mike Watson his first bracelet in Las Vegas. There were another nine bracelet events on Day 31 of the WSOP which reached the latter stages, the middle stages and in some cases, broke records on Day 1.

Mercier Makes History, Joins Greats on Six Bracelets

For the Canadian player Mike Watson, the North American drought goes on. A record of extraordinary success at the WSOP - ‘Sir Watts’ has won over $3.4 million at the World Series over the years – is marred by the missing WSOP bracelet on American soil that continues to elude him. For Jason Mercier, however, a sixth WSOP looked like child’s play to the man who had scaled back live poker events while he helped raise his young family with wife Natasha Mercier.

Sitting down at the five-handed final table on the last day of action in this mixed game event, Mercier looked vastly different to how he has in recent years. Gone was the long hair and beard that to some had defined a period of his life where he enjoyed taking time out to spend with his family. The new-look Mercier, a devout Christian, had opted for the ‘Reverse Sansom’. Shorn of his locks, but returned to the greatest of his powers, he overcame a chip deficit and some poker greats along the way to claiming gold for a sixth time.

Mercier, who was by no means leading at the start of the final table, eventually overtook Brad Ruben and after Erik Seidel had busted in fifth place, went into the heads-up against Watson directly after Ruben’s elimination.

“I've been three-handed with four separate times in major events and I've won all four,” Mercier described after the event. “We played heads up for the no-limit deuce bracelet in the $10K in 2016. So, it was definitely a bit of déja vu. Going into heads up, I was a little worried that he was finally going to get me. But luckily I ran hot and was able to beat him again.”

After such an impressive result, no-one will want to take on the resurgent Mercier in this year’s WSOP... least of all Mike Watson.

Malboubi Leads Last 13 in Super Seniors

Just 13 players remain in the $1,000-entry Super Seniors Event #61, with Rassoul Malboubi (10.1m) the chip leader going into the final day. With the overnight leader Farhad Davoudzadeh (9m) in second place on the leaderboard, Ronald Lane sits in third with just over 6 million chips.

A huge top prize of $371,603 is up for grabs in this event and whoever wins will create history, not only by winning the biggest-ever Super Seniors event to be held in the WSOP but by winning their first-ever WSOP bracelet, as no-one remaining in the event has done so before in their long careers at the felt.

Ladies Championship Sets Series Record

This year’s $1,000-entry Ladies Championship set a new attendance record at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos, as it welcomed an official top-scoring 1,295 entries on Day 31 of this year’s WSOP. That’s nine more players than in 2007, a record which stood for 16 long years but is now a mere footnote to what certainly seems a growing sector of the game of poker.

Living long in the memory on Day 1 of this year’s Ladies Event, which will see the winner take home a top prize of $192,167, was Bernice Mclennan, who piled up 276,500 to lead the way from her fellow ladies after the opening day. There were prominent performances from several legends of the game, as Veronica Brill (212,500), Samantha Abernathy (185,500), Vanessa Kade (146,000), Tiffany Michelle (75,000), Monika Zukowicz (66,000), 2021 champion Lara Eisenberg (72,500), Kristen Foxen (59,500), reigning champion Jessica Teusl (39,000) and Gaelle Baumann (31,000) all made the cut.

Not everyone could survive, of course, and with only 330 players making Day 2, others such as WPT legend Lynn Gilmartin, Poker Hall of Famer Kathy Liebert, content creator extraordinaire Marle Spragg, and breakout star Kyna England all failed to progress.

Prociak Leads Final Five in Mixed Event

David Prociak leads the last five players into action in Event #62, the $1,500-entry Mixed NLHE/PLO event. With a top prize of $410,659 on offer to the winner, Prociak is the only remaining player to have won a bracelet before and will be hoping that a combination of his experience and a big chip lead make the difference tomorrow.

Prociak’s stack of 21.45 million chips is huge compared even to his closest challenger David Simon (11.9m), with the other three players having well below half the leader’s pile. Eric Pfenning (8.1m) completes an all-American podium set-up, with Israel’s Tsuf Saltsberg (6.55m) and Eran Carmi, who led after Day 2, on 3.9 million, playing some serious catch-up.

Kenney, Rheem and Korn All Chasing Championship Gold

The final day of the 63^rd event of this year’s WSOP was supposed to be on Day 31 but the remaining six players will come back on Friday for what is rapidly turning into ‘Closing Friday’. Bryn Kenney (2,035,000) is amongst it with five players separating him and Andres Korn (1,300,000) from a second gold bracelet. Everyone else is fighting for their first, with Ryan Miller leading the chase on a chip-leading stack of 2.23 million chips.

Lautenbacher Leads Last 44 in Deepstack Championship

Cade Lautenbacher will shoot for his second WSOP bracelet tomorrow as he leads the final 44 players into action in Event #64, the $600-entry Deepstack Championship. Lautenbacher’s stack of 7.2 million was a little way clear of Jonathan Fhima (6,665,000) in second place, while Julian Pineda (5.86m) sits in third place. The only other former bracelet winner to make the top ten was Joe Ebanks, who came in fourth in chips with 5,355,000.

Brazilians Boosted in $5,000 Six-Max Event

Two Brazilians topped the leaderboard in Event #65, with another in the top six as a South American vibe overtook the 6-Max NLHE event. Vitor Dzivielevski (3,425,000) and Pedro Garagnani (3,220,000) are the only two players above 3 million in chips, with 1,199 entries in the vent whittled down to just 48 hopefuls after Day 2.

Still in with a shout of glory with one scheduled day remaining are Ryan Leng (1,425,000), Craig McCorkell (815,000) and Kyle Julius (810,000), with Scott Seiver a little further back on 615,000 chips. Short stacks David ‘Bakes’ Baker (400,000) and Daniel Lazrus (185,000) will be hoping for a fast start to get back among the contenders.

Rodrigues Chasing Second Bracelet of Summer

Michael Rodrigues is well positioned to win the second WSOP bracelet of what has already been a spectacular summer in Las Vegas. The Portuguese player bagged up 3,450,000 chips on the penultimate day of action in Event #66, the $1,500-entry PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better event. To do so, however, he’ll have to stop the runaway leader overnight, William Kopp, who somehow built a chip-leading stack of 7.5 million, more than double anyone else’s stack including Rodrigues.

Elsewhere, players such as two-time WSOP winner Yuval Bronshtein (2,155,000) and four-time winner Anthony Zinno (825,000) will hope to add to their collections if they can initiate a fightback in the swingy poker variant.  

Super Turbo Bounty Extended

The final 10 players in the $1,000-entry Event #68, otherwise known as the latest Super Turbo Bounty event, will have to come back tomorrow and conclude the latest extended event to run into another day down to sheer volume. Gabriel Schroeder of Brazil leads with 14.5 million chips, but stars such as Daniel Lowery (6.35m) and Andy Black (2.6m) among others will be looking to grab glory of their own.

Moncek on Course for Double 

Michael Moncek is another player who is on course for his second bracelet of the summer, although he still has a very long way to go in order to fulfil that ambition. Moncek (452,000) leads the remaining 54 players into Day 2 after 126 took on the $10,000-entry NL 2-7 Single Draw Championship. Other luminaries such as top 10 reaching Galen Hall (298,000), Ryan Riess (256,500) and the resurgent Jason Mercier (255,500) will have plenty to say about it. Mercier immediately jumped into this event following his bracelet win earlier in the day.

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