EPT €100,000 Super High Roller Finale & Doyle Brunson Retires

Mercier on Course for Another EPT Title

With the lights poised to go down on this year’s EPT Grand Final, Jason Mercier continued increase his stack in the penultimate session of €100,000 Super High Roller, yesterday.

On a day that saw a number of high profile eliminations, including Sam Trickett, Antonio Esfandiari and final table bubble boy Erik Seidel, it was Mercier who led the race for the €1,746,400 top prize.

Thanks to 50 entrance fees being collected, the prizepool reached €4,851,000 which means today’s champion will walk away with more money than the Grand Final’s Main Event champion, Steve O’Dwyer.

Mercier started today’s session (which kicked off earlier) with 4,165,000 chips and while he looks to be a strong favourite for the title, the likes of Sorel Mizzi and Scott Seiver will be doing their best to thwart his plans.

At the time of writing the first elimination of the day had just occurred. After entering the final table as the short stack, Mike Watson eventually bowed out after his three-bet shove with [Kd] [Qs] was instantly called by Mizzi holding pocket aces.

As the board rolled out [6d] [6s] [5s] [9c] [3d], Watson was sent to the rail to collect his €218,300 consolation prize, leaving just six players still in the hunt for the title

For live updates from the tournament, click here.

Doyle Ditches WSOP

Doyle Brunson might have one of the most impressive WSOP CVs in poker, but according to a recent tweet he won’t be taking part in any tournaments at the Series this year.

Despite still being active in the toughest cash games in the world, Doyle has found the demands of the WSOP in recent years increasingly tough to meet.

Indeed, over the past few years he has drastically reduced the number of tournaments he’s played, dropping from seven events in 2011 to just four in 2012.

The news came via a tweet in which Brunson wrote: “Afraid I am finally gonna give in to Father Time and pass on tournament play at WSOP. #toomanyhours.”

Since winning his first WSOP bracelet back in 1976, Doyle has gone on to scoop a total of ten titles, including two in the Main Event, over the course of his career. His last victory came in 2005 when he bested a tough short-handed No Limit Hold’em field to bank $367,800.

However, while the 79 year old might be content to let the younger generation fight for bracelets, Doyle will no doubt still be mixing it up at the cash tables when the Series gets underway in a few weeks time.