Jason Mercier and Natasha Barbour were recently married in South Florida.
Just days after the big wedding, the newlyweds did what every other couple does after getting hitched: entered a major poker tournament together.
The Florida residents signed up for the Seminole Hard Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida.
The tournament couldn’t have been scripted any better. On Day Three, both were still alive and, strangely enough, had the exact same chip stack at one point.
“Beyond weird, @natashabarbour and I both with exactly 205k going to 8/16k. 38 left in @SHRPO,” Jason posted on Twitter.
The couple was short stacked and needed to run it up in order to both make the final table. Or, even stranger, go heads-up for the title.
Shortly after, Natasha busted in 36th place. Being the nice guy Jason is, he didn’t want to upstage his bride too much so he busted in 35th place. Jamie Kerstetter gave credit where credit is due.
“Key to a happy marriage, let your wife bust first,” she posted on Twitter, pun intended.
She Got Game
Jason Mercier has won more than $17 million in live poker tournaments and is the reigning WSOP Player of the Year. But he isn’t the only talented poker player in the family.
Natasha also put together an impressive 2016 World Series of Poker. She cashed in seven events, including a 3rd place finish in Event #59, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship.
Jason’s bride won $349,374 in that tournament and now has over $1.1 million in lifetime tournament winnings.
Her 3rd place elimination was one of the most memorable bust outs in poker history, and not because of some sick bad beat or cooler. Immediately after, Jason approached the feature table at the Rio in Las Vegas and proposed to her.
De Silva in Commanding Lead
The Mercier’s weren’t the only players in the $3,500 buy-in tournament. Heading into Day Four which began at noon EST on Tuesday, Upeshka De Silva held a commanding chip lead (6,160,000).
Matthew Zarcadoolas was in 2nd place with less than one-third of De Silva’s stack (1,745,000).
Tuesday’s play began with just 18 players remaining out of the original 760.
There are still some big name pros left including Will Failla. The tournament will conclude on Wednesday with the final table.
