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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #60 $1,500 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw Results:
Rank	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Jason Mercier	United States	$151,276
2nd	Mike Watson	Canada	$93,495
3rd	Brad Ruben	United States	$63,505
4th	Jon Turner	United States	$44,002
5th	Erik Seidel	United States	$31,114

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #61 $1,000 Super Seniors Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Rassoul Malboubi	United States	10,150,000
2nd	Farhad Davoudzadeh	United States	9,000,000
3rd	Ronald Lane	United States	6,075,000
4th	Arnon Graham	United States	6,000,000
5th	Jimmie James	United States	5,850,000
6th	Robert Whalen	United States	4,625,000
7th	James Martini	United States	4,275,000
8th	Kevin Parmely	United States	4,000,000
9th	Ronald Swain	United States	3,475,000
10th	Richard Wallace	United States	3,025,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #67 $1,000 Ladies Championship Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Bernice Mclennan	Canada	276,500
2nd	Katrina Lim	United States	245,000
3rd	Talia Fligelman	United States	234,500
4th	Sharon Liss	United States	230,500
5th	Tia Dulaney	United States	229,500
6th	Stephani Hagberg	United States	226,000
7th	Karina Jett	United States	222,000
8th	Ruth Hall	United States	218,000
9th	Anna Rudolph	United States	215,500
10th	Marcia Paulson	United States	214,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #62 $1,500 Mixed NLHE/PLO Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	David Prociak	United States	21,450,000
2nd	David Simon	United States	11,900,000
3rd	Eric Pfenning	United States	8,100,000
4th	Tsuf Saltsberg	Israel	6,550,000
5th	Eran Carmi	Israel	3,925,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #63 $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Ryan Miller	United States	2,230,000
2nd	Bryn Kenney	United States	2,035,000
3rd	Maximilian Schindler	United States	1,910,000
4th	Andres Korn	Argentina	1,300,000
5th	David 'Chino' Rheem	United States	525,000
6th	Eddie Blumenthal	United States	455,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #64 $600 NLHE Deepstack Championship:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Cade Lautenbacher	United States	7,205,000
2nd	Jonathan Fhima	France	6,665,000
3rd	Julian Pineda	Columbia	5,860,000
4th	Joe Ebanks	United States	5,355,000
5th	Will Thysell	United States	5,100,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #65 $5,000 NLHE 6-Max Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Vitor Dzivielevski	Brazil	3,425,000
2nd	Pedro Garagnani	Brazil	3,220,000
3rd	Cody Jones	United States	2,855,000
4th	Chuanshu Chen	China	2,520,000
5th	Norbert Szecsi	Hungary	2,345,000
6th	Douglas Ferreira	Brazil	2,135,000
7th	Tyler Cornell	United States	2,125,000
8th	Georgios Sotiropoulos	Greece	1,960,000
9th	Danny Tang	Hong Kong	1,940,000
10th	Omar Lakhdari	France	1,845,000

 

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.  

 

WSOP 2023 Event #66 $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	William Kopp	United States	7,500,000
2nd	Michael Rodrigues	Portugal	3,450,000
3rd	John Goyette	United States	3,140,000
4th	Mike Linster	United States	3,100,000
5th	Sterling Savill	United States	3,035,000
6th	Yuval Bronshtein	Israel	2,155,000
7th	Philipp Krieger	Germany	1,500,000
8th	Loni Hui	United States	1,355,000
9th	Joseph McCarthy	United States	1,000,000
10th	Anthony Zinno	United States	825,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #68 $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Gabriel Schroeder	Brazil	14,500,000
2nd	Jordan Jayne	United States	10,825,000
3rd	Elson Lima	United States	9,000,000
4th	Daniel Lowery	United States	6,350,000
5th	Takumi Noisheida	United States	4,500,000
6th	Joel Wertheimer	United States	4,300,000
7th	Ryan Goindoo	Trinidad & Tobago	3,000,000
8th	Jose Brito	Portugal	2,750,000
9th	Andy Black	Ireland	2,600,000
10th	Jonathan Akiba	United States	2,000,000

 

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.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #69 $10,000 NL 2-7 Single Draw Championship:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Michael Moncek	United States	452,000
2nd	Galen Hall	United States	298,000
3rd	Jon Turner	United States	270,000
4th	Yingui Li	China	260,000
5th	Ryan Riess	United States	256,500
6th	Jason Mercier	United States	255,500
7th	Pedro Bromfman	Brazil	240,000
8th	Paul Volpe	United States	233,500
9th	Robert Wells	United Kingdom	232,000
10th	Cary Katz	United States	221,000

 

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