Pocket Nines Continue To Be Mercier's Kryptonite

Jason Mercier and pocket nines don't exactly see eye to eye, especially recently.

Yesterday in the €10,600 Main Event here at the 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final, Mercier was deep in the remaining field with 28 players left. It was then that Mercier raised from under the gun before action folded to Ludovic Geilich in the big blind. Geilich reraised all in, and Mercier quickly called off for just under 26 big blinds total.

Mercier had pocket nines — the — and was well out in front of the for Geilich. Unfortunately for the Team PokerStars Pro, the board ran out , and Geilich turned a set before finishing with a full house. With that, Mercier fell short in his quest for the final table and earned €29,900.

"I just felt like a five was coming," Mercier said to one of our reporter's in passing a day later. "It was just one of those feelings you have."

Today, things didn't get much better for Mercier. He was involved in Day 2 of this €25,500 High Roller and found himself returning from the last break to look down at the same hand — the .

This time, Stephen Chidwick opened the pot with a raise to 6,500 from middle position. Mercier was next in the hijack seat and reraised all in for 60,900. The action slid over to Pablo Melogno Cabrera on the button. He got counts on both Mercier and Chidwick, thought for a few moments, then reraised all in. Everyone, including Chidwick, folded, and it was Mercier with his nines against the for Cabrera.

The flop came down and delivered trip queens to Cabrera. The turn was the , and the river was the . This meant Mercier was gone from the event, as his pocket nines once again failed to hold up.

If you think this is bad, wait until you here about another instance in which Mercier had pocket nines and it cost him a whole heck of a lot of money.

Back at the 2013 World Series of Poker, Mercier was playing Day 3 of the 1,072-entry $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. The winner was set to get $592,684, and Mercier was in line for his third bracelet and a big payday, but he stood to win even more than that as 2013 was the year he made a large amount of WSOP bracelet bets.

With 16 players left, Mercier played a pot with Michael Rocco where about 20% of the chips in the entire event were in the middle. The money went in on the board with one card to come, and Mercier had Rocco dead to rights with the . Rocco had the and was in need of a two-outer.

But then, everything changed when the smacked down on the river and gave Rocco a winning full house. It sent Mercier to the rail in 16th place, and he was left with a consolation prize of $21,773.

Of course, it's hard to quantify just how much equity these hands have been worth to Mercier because tournament poker can be a brutal game, but given his record over the years and the fact that he is widely considered one of the game's strongest minds, certainly hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost had these hands held up.

It goes without saying that pocket nines haven't been that kind to Mercier.