Jason Mercier Debuts on High Stakes Poker Season 6 Episode 3

Watch Daniel Negreanu get lucky to chop with Tom Dwan at 2:30

Episode 3 of Season 6 of GSN’s High Stakes Poker saw the debut of 2009 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Jason Mercier. Known more for his tournament prowess than playing cash games, Mercier nevertheless held his own during the episode.

Mercier admitted to a slight case of nerves before sitting at the table. It was no surprise that the first person to put those nerves to the test was Tom Dwan. Mercier opened for $5,500 with pocket deuces on his very first hand at the table only to find himself reraised to $19,200 by Dwan, who held A-3 offsuit on the button. Mercier eventually decided to muck, saying, “It’s not fair they dealt me a good hand on my first hand when I just wanted to fold.” Despite this season’s ban on prop bets, the table then got to work laying odds and taking bets on which of the two young stars had the best hand.

Mercier’s first chance at a big pot came holding A-J offsuit against Dario Minieri’s own A-J of spades. But when the flop came down Q-J-T the action didn’t go past a Minieri stab on the turn ad the two chopped up the pot. Mercier also managed to flop a king-high flush after limping in preflop, but he was unable to get any more value than a small steal bet from Daniel Negreanu.

Eli Elezra won the biggest pot of the episode when he flopped top pair with K-8 of hearts against Gus Hansen, who made a preflop raise with 6-4 offsuit and executed a triple-barrel bluff that didn’t come close to knocking Elezra off his hand. Hansen admitted in an interview with Kara Scott that he made a mistake with his final $62,200 bluff because he stuck with a predetermined plan even though the ace of spades showed up on the river and changed the situation. While Hansen talked with Scott, the rest of the players at the table joked with each other about how awful it is to have to do interviews after busting from tournaments.

Tom Dwan had a chance to scoop a much bigger pot when he got Negreanu all-in with middle pair against Dwan’s overpair of queens. But the poker gods intervened after Negreanu asked to run it twice; Dwan agreed, and on the second run Negreanu caught another 9 on the river to chop up the pot. You can check out that hand in the video above.

Toward the end of the episode Elezra noted that he missed Sammy Farha in these games. It’s likely there are more than a few viewers who feel the same. The kind of action that players like Farha brought to the table in earlier season of High Stakes Poker is in short supply in Season 6, and it’s beginning to look like it won’t be coming back.