US poker player, Greg Merson, a young and adventurous poker player, has become the most recent World Series of Poker champion of the year.
He participated in the annual marathon World Series of Poker that was organized in Nevada, Las Vegas. For his troubles he took in whopping $8.5 million USD and this places him as the best player out of 6,598 poker players.
This tourney first began in the month of July and Merson’s win is remarkable because of the large playing field and large prize.
Merson was very excited and emotional about his win and said,
I feel pretty good – got all the tears out, so now I feel relaxed.” He also mentioned his future plans and explained that he wanted to play big league high roller games. “That’s what I’m looking forward to doing the most — getting in the biggest cash games in the world. And not losing all my money
The last three players standing at the table were Jake Balsiger, Greg Merson and Jesse Sylvia. All three players were exceptionally good at the game and took in a lot of poker chips during the game. Jake Balsiger was the youngest player of the three at 21 years of age and was the first to be eliminated in the final round.
“I have some homework due tomorrow, my supreme court class. I didn’t do it last week because I was in a final table simulation, so my professor’s probably not the happiest with me,” he said.
Greg Merson and Jesse Sylvia continued with the game and had a head to head battle. The game involved big bets and even bigger bluffs, going as far as 399 hands – which was1very exciting. Sylvia eventually lost out to Greg Merson and became the runner up.
It was kind of swinging emotionally. Thinking that you’re going to be heads-up and then to make something on the river, and think you’re going to be heads up and someone else hits something
I fought hard …We were one flip away from having a giant chip lead. Sometimes things don’t pan out, and that’s fine. I feel like I played really well
Merson had some tips for his fans and followers. Upcoming poker players would benefit from Merson advice which was: “You can’t let fatigue get in the way. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’ve pushed myself through tons of hours of poker in the past, and you just have to get through it somehow. I’m never going to have an opportunity like this again.”
