Mercier ends his eight-and-a-half-year relationship with the site for family reasons.
The 31-year-old tournament pro has been one of the biggest stars of the site. He became known in the community back in 2008 when he took down the €5,000 EPT Main Event in Sanremo for $1,372,893. Since then, he accumulated more than $18 million in live tournament earnings.
Jason has been a sponsored pro by PokerStars since then and he gained the respect of the whole community (even though some people think he’s a “bad reg”). It’s known that family and friends are the most important priorities for him so it was no surprise to see him not to lengthen his contract which ended at the end of last year with the site.
Much to the delight of everyone who knows Jason, baby Mercier arrived at the Jason-Natasha clan 3 months ago. That’s the main reason the poker pro turned father decided to focus more on his family rather than the game. In his blog, he wrote: “Our baby boy Marco Henry was born October 6, 2017. My life was changed forever that day and for the better. Becoming a parent brings about a complete transformation of who you are. I no longer let myself be so concerned with what I want, but more so the well being of my wife and my child (and future children). Serving and leading my family is of utmost importance.”
Unlike many other players, Jason doesn’t plan on retiring from poker, he’s still going to play all the big tournaments next year. In fact, he’s playing the events in Florida this year as well, as those venues don’t need long travelling for the “Sunshine State” inhabitant: “Just to be clear, I’m not retiring from poker by any means. Not only will I be back at the PCA next year and look forward to playing the PokerStars Player Championship, I still plan to play all the big Florida series events, and as of now I plan to go to Las Vegas for the WSOP this summer.”
We wish good luck on yet another wonderful journey for the Merciers and hope to see Jason back at the tables soon.
(source: PokerStars Blog)