He’s a really cool dude, we partied at a club on Saturday night, and then a bunch of guys played online in his suite all day on Sunday. 

My friend Phil and I were talking the other day about Phelps and how he has to be considered, one of, if not THE greatest athlete of our generation or the last 50 years. Definitely, hands down, the most dominant athlete at their given sport.

Anyways, poker out here had been pretty miserable up until today. I had played the 2k heads up, which was a double elimination tournament, lost my first 2 matches. Then played the 1500 the next day, and busted about 4 hours in.

My friend Phil final tabled that one, but got 8th sigh. Then Sunday I played about 25 tournaments on stars and only cashed one, 20th in a 50 cubed… yuk!

So today was Day 1b of the main event out here… $3500 event. It drew over 750 players and first place is over 600k… SICK!

I had a fairly steady day… stack was between 25-55k all day… lot of interesting pots, anyways ended the day with 50,825 chips. We restart at 11 am tomorrow which is too early if you ask me. Oh well, I guess that’s what you get when you have a good structured tournament.

You can follow updates on borgatapoker.blogspot.com/ or my personal updates on www.jasonmercier.com, which is my facebook fanpage.

Pz 

J Merc

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We left Biloxi, Mississippi a few hours ago. We were both hoping we were going to be staying in Biloxi an extra day, as our buddy Dan O’Brien was still in the main event in Biloxi late last night.

They were playing down to the final 6, but unfortunately Dan busted out in 9^th. This was another deep run for Dan, I know he’s going to win a big one soon, the kid is playing amazing.

I’m going to be playing only a few tournaments in AC at the Borgata. There’s a 2k NL heads up tomorrow, a 1500 NL on the 29^th, and the 3500 main event starts on the 31^st.

As soon as I bust the 3500 in AC, I’ll be heading back to Florida for a few days before heading to Tunica for the 5k WSOP circuit event and then off to Los Angeles for the LAPC.

I was happy I was able to have a successful trip to Biloxi and am looking for more of the same at Borgata.

At the beginning of the year, I booked a bet against Mike Matasow. He said I won’t have 1 million dollars in cashes in 2010. I am on pace now, with just under $70k, but I hope I can lock this up before the World Series even starts.

Bluff Magazine’s next issue will be coming out soon and I am supposed to be on the cover, which will be pretty cool. Also, the World Series of Poker Europe starts airing on ESPN in a few days, and I should be on the majority of the coverage making my US TV debut.

Word!

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I ended up finally leaving the walk in clinic that Sunday night around 2 am, prescriptions in hand, and made the decision to stay up and leave for the airport at 4:45 am for my 630 flight.

I hadn’t packed yet or anything so I headed to Walgreens to get my prescriptions, and then back to my place to pack. I had to take 2 flights each around 1 hour and 45 minutes long to get to Biloxi, with a short layover in Charlotte. 

It was a pretty miserable trip as my ears were clogged, I was really tired and falling in and out of sleep, but luckily I was able to make it here safely, arriving at 11 am.

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I was on my way to a 24 hour walk-in clinic because I have been sick for the last week and haven’t been getting any better.

This is probably the 6th or 7th time that I have been sick in the last 12 months. I don’t know if it’s my diet, lack of exercise, irregular sleep schedule, constant travelling, or a combo of a few or all of these things.

Either way, something has to change, I refuse to let myself continually get sick.

Is it sad that I don’t know how to change a tire? I’m waiting for triple A sigh! Should probably take like an hour ugh!

As far as poker goes, I played only 4 tourneys today on stars. I cashed in 1 tourney… The early 100 rebuy. 83k to first, I got 13th… Pretty miserable.

I’m supposed to get on a flight to Biloxi in 7.5 hours, but I’m definitely skipping it. I’ll just go there when I feel a bit better. I think I’m gonna start taking a multivitamin and also start drinking orange juice everyday.

I need to get healthy asap.

Sent from my iPhone

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Because the PCA is the biggest Pokerstars extravaganza, all the Pokerstars pros have way more media activities to do then they would at a normal EPT.

I have been having to squeeze in interviews and all kinds of other media activities in between playing poker. I am also working with Bluff Magazine on the cover article for their next issue.

My best friend, Darko, just got here yesterday so I’m going to try to hang out with him a bunch and have a good time while he’s here.

The weather has been the pittz as it’s been cold and windy the first few days here. I’m pretty sure it’s warmed up now and is going to be great weather for the rest of the trip.

I am going to be playing the 2k tag team event today at 2 pm with Christian Harder as my partner. He is going to play the PLH and I will play the PLO. I’m pretty sure we are the favorite in the field. Hof!

I am really looking forward to this event and tomorrow’s event which is a 5k plo 8 max event. What what! First plo event of 2010, gotta win it!

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Unfortunately for me my opponent today “stacked off” with the stone nuts.

I lost a big pot early in the day, folding a baby flush on a paired board after some serious strength from the other player in the hand.

On my last hand I called a raise to 300 with T-7 in the big blind and the flop came down Q-9-6. I checked and he bet out just 200! I called and an eight hit the turn. It looked like a great card but …

I checked, he bet 500, I check-raised to 1,500 and he shoved. I made the call and he turned over … J-T obv.

I don’t think there’s any way to get away from it, especially in a short event like these $1,500’s.

I’ll be back on the felt soon so make sure to check back for more updates!

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The LAPC at the Commerce Casino is a special event for me because it’s where I started my high-stakes poker career. It attracts not only many players from around the world but many top professionals.

And with the new structure that tournament director Matt Savage put in place, the tournament saw a lot of action that no doubt satisfied everyone.

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I try not to make promises to myself that I can’t keep, so I don’t. One of the most common questions I’m asked is what advice would I give to young amateurs trying to make the leap to playing higher stakes.

I almost never answer the question, because most people aren’t really asking that question.

Most people really just want to cut corners and find some hidden secrets that will somehow get them playing $5/$10 and $10/$20 NLHE.

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But what a great way to end the night! Chino and others were prop-betting the Chicago-Philadelphia NFL game, and Mike never shut up the entire hour we were together. I love Mike Matusow!

I ended the evening with $60,800. It’s never good to end the day with half the chips you started with, but I feel I played well.

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You might not believe it, but it was a terrific few days for me. My confidence is sky-high for next year.

I’ve avoided the tables most of the last few weeks as I just haven’t felt as motivated as I should be. It hasn’t been easy to do, just to stay away rather than jump back into the cash games here and try and play my way back into normalcy.

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