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Event #5 at the World Series of Poker, the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, produced a field of 809 players and a prize pool over $1.1 million.

This topped last year's field of 758 by about seven percent. Last year's winner was Vanessa Selbst, another twenty-something poker pro who came up through the online ranks. Her reward for that accomplishment was nearly $228,000.

Jason Mercier of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, leapt into the chip lead on day one, finishing with 227,300 and a more than 65,000-chip-lead over his closest competitor. Day one concluded with the bursting of the money bubble, so the 81 players who returned on day two would all get paid.

Early departures on day two included WSOP bracelet holders Robert Mizrachi, (67th place) Brent Carter, (62nd place) Alexander Kravchenko, (52nd place) Josh Arieh, (31st place) and Eric 'e-fro' Froehlich (26th place). At about 1am, they reached the final table of nine players and stopped for the night. Jason Mercier had surrendered the chip lead to Kevin Iacofano. Jason had dropped to third in the standings.

Also appearing at the final table were two former WSOP bracelet holders An 'the Boss' Tran and Dario Alioto. An Tran lost his bid for a second bracelet, finishing 8th ($25,122). Dario Alioto also missed out on bracelet number two, finishing 7th ($29,882).

Jason Mercier went on a rush at the final table, busting Chris Biondino in 5th place ($48,533), then busting Matt Giannetti in 4th place ($66,544). At that point Jason had reclaimed the chip lead and never looked back. Steven Burkholder busted Kevin Iacofano in 3rd place ($96,128) and they were heads-up for the title. Burkholder had a slight chip lead at the start of heads-up play, but Mercier flopped two pair and rivered a boat, getting Burkholder to pay off his value bet.

A half hour later it was all over. Both players flopped trip Jacks and Burkholder had the better kicker. All the chips went in on the flop and Mercier trailing, but he paired his Queen on the turn to fill up and take the lead. The river was no help to Burkholder and he had to settle for second place and $146,748. Jason Mercier earned his first WSOP bracelet and $237,415.