There is a whole new generation of poker players coming along these days who grew up watching the game on television. One of the best of them is Jason Mercier; he started playing after seeing how much money could be won when he watched tournaments on television. It proved to be a good decision as he has now won millions of dollars.
Jason Mercier is from Florida and it was there that he got his start playing poker. He was at college studying to be a math teacher when he watched the World Series of Poker on television in 2003 and he decided that he was going to start playing the game. Initially he started playing with his friends but he soon discovered online poker. Over the next five years he played whenever he could and he started to win quite a bit of money playing online, enough that he gave up on the idea of becoming a math teacher.
In 2008 Mercier decided to enter his first live tournament, he chose to do this in Europe because he thought it would be easier to start on the European tour. He would prove to be as good at live games as he was at online games getting a couple of wins in Europe and several in the money finishes. The following year he would continue to play in Europe but he would also come back to the States to compete in the World Series of Poker, something that he has done with great success every year since.
Over the course of his career Jason Mercier has collected two WSOP bracelets, one in 2009 and one in 2011. In addition he has managed to collect eighteen money finishes at the event over the last three years. When added to the couple of tournaments that he won in Europe he has been very successful since he started playing in live tournaments. In fact he has done so well that ESPN now ranks him as the number one player in the world. Given number of money finishes he has had recently this is something that not a lot of people can argue with.
While Jason Mercier has had great success in live games he has also gotten back into playing online. In part this is because of a sponsorship arrangement that he has with an online casino. Nevertheless he now regularly enters online tournaments where has managed to win a world championship event. He also plays a lot of cash games online. As one of the younger professional poker players the future for Jason Mercier is very bright. He should continue to do well in both live and online tournaments although if the history of other players is any indication he will probably move into more cash games and fewer tournaments in the future.