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Written by Stefan | Friday, June 5th, 2009
Event #5 has come and gone, as it began Monday and was over Wednesday. With 809 entrants, the field was pretty large, but not too big. The total prize pool was just over $11 million. After Day 1, only 81 players were still standing, though, all of which were already guaranteed to place in the money. Day 2 wrapped up with 18 levels of play and an official final table seating arrangement with nine remaining players following the elimination of Alex Michaels in tenth place. The final table consisted of the following pot-limit Omaha poker players: An “The Boss” Tran (445,000); Jason Mercier (384,400); Chris Biondino (182,000); Matt Giannetti (311,000); Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano (770,000); Jonathan Tare (639,000); Dario Alioto (315,000); Vic Park (341,000); and Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder (263,000).
Around 7:00 p.m. in Vegas, about five hours into Day 3, Jason Mercier became the 2009 WSOP Event #5 Champion, earning $237,415 and his very own gold bracelet to add to his two EPT trophies. The rail was packed with Mercier friends and family who came to support the 22-year-old player from Florida. Despite the crowd though, Mercier managed to remain calm and level-headed as he used his expertise and skill to drive home the win. He is actually a very impressive player for his age, but he is among the next generation of really young, yet really in control poker players who just get it.
Burkholder, who came in second place, admitted he was out of his league as a self-proclaimed PLO novice; however, he didn’t do too bad for a three-days work, landing a $146,748 payout.
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