What kind of a poker player participates in an 85 man tournament that costs £20,000 to enter? The answer is a confident one or an extremely rich one.  There were many players who possess both of those traits in the field of the EPT London £1 Million Showdown at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on London’s West End. Among the top pros in the field were Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, and Barry Greenstein — these were just some of the players who didn’t make the final 14 in this tournament.

The high-roller event took 11 rounds to reach the final 14 players on Sunday, Oct. 5. It then took only two hours to whittle the field of 14 down to the final-table of nine. The field was full of big names and seasoned pros, and it was the lesser known but formidable Jason Mercier who came out on top. It should be noted that Mercier has been on a hot streak as of late, making final tables at the EPT (sixth place at EPT Barcelona) and World Series of Poker Europe (eighth place in the £5,000 pot-limit Omaha event), and is now one of the leading cash winners in tournament poker this year, with $2,639,031 to his name in 2008.

Mercier emerged victorious after a heads-up battle with the always tough John Juanda. Mercier began the heads-up match down more than 2 to 1 in chips but doubled-up on the very first hand when his QJ found its jack on the river vs. Juanda’s A2. This evened the chips stacks and gave Mercier new life of which he took advantage.

On the final hand, Juanda raised preflop, and Mercier moved all in. Mercier was behind with KQ in the hole to Juanda’s AJ, but he flopped the nut straight on a board of J T 9 5 3 to win the event. Congratulations to Jason Mercier on his big victory.

The final results are as follows:

1: Jason Mercier (USA) — £516,000
2: John Juanda (USA) — £327,000
3: Michael Watson (Canada) — £241,000
4: Peter Jetten (Canada) — £189,000
5: Scotty Nguyen (USA) — £137,500
6: Isaac Haxton (USA) — £103,000
7: Masaaki Kagawa (Japan) — £86,000
8: David Benyamine (France) — £59,000
9: Isabelle Mercier (Canada) — £51,000