Jason Mercier wins $2.6 million in European Poker Tour
My story about Jason Mercier, who tore it up in Europe this summer, made the print version of the SunSentinel today.
I didn't have space to include that he endured a bit of a slump: He cashed in only three of the 22 World Series of Poker events he entered. And I couldn't fully explain the online poker world (who could?) in a few paragraphs. Clearly, playing 5,500 hands a day on average meant that he was playing multiple games -- something I'd never had the skills, or the patience for.
Some commenters also had a good point: Not everyone should try this at home. In the original (non-cut) version, I quote Pat Fowler from the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, who, like a commenter, said that for everyone one Jason Mercier, there are dozens of college students who drop out, with no education and no job. Gambling addiction among college students has more than doubled because it's so easy to sit in your room and play online, she notes.
They also cut the kicker: that he bought his parents a new car, and that he offered them more money, but they said no.
His mom, Dottie: "It's his money. He won it, not us."
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, moved on to "night baseball" and "pass the trash" during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold 'Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel...which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
