Jason Mercier Wins PokerStars EPT San Remo Final

April 10 - Jason Mercier, the young American poker player, had a smooth road to his $1.3-million (869,000 Euros) victory in San Remo this week, playing in a PokerStar.com European Poker Tour final event.

Mercier qualified for the event via satellite and fought off impressive competition material in a quick and exciting victory to play the shortest final in the history of the European Poker Tour.

Starting from second place on the second day of the championship, Jason Mercier dominated the game nearly throughout the entire time. In less than three hours, he had eliminated all but one of the competition players, including Marcus Bower from the United States, Dag Palovic from Slovakia, William Thorson from Sweden, Eric Koskas from France and Gregory Genovese and Dario Minieri from Italy.

Mercier came head to head with the Frenchman Anthony Lelouche, who went all in on the second hand with pocket sevens. Jason Mercier called with KQ. With the flop bringing a king and the turn and river producing blanks, Mercier was declared the winner of the event.

After his victory, Mercier said in an interview: "Actually the funniest thing is I was planning on selling my San Remo ticket because my friend backed out of coming three weeks before. Two of my online friends said they were going but they weren't going to play the event. 'You can meet up with us', and I thought screw it and I go. They're very good friends now."

The top three results of the PokerStars.com EPT San Remo finals and their prizes in Euros are as follows:

1. Jason Mercier, USA, 869,000 Euros

2. Anthony Lelouche, France, 505,000 Euros

3. Dario Minieri, Italy, 287,000 Euros