“I think a very big part of being an entrepreneur is diversification,” says 29-year-old Jason Mercier. His main source of income? Not the stock market. Not real estate. It’s poker.
Mercier, who has held the ranking of the world’s No. 1 player, has won $17.4 million in tournament poker. Mercier, and others like him, have to be good businessmen in order to have a successful career, says World Poker Tour commentator Mike Sexton, who has been a poker pro since 1985.
The days of successful poker players being cowboy-like figures with $100 bills stuffed in their pockets are long gone. “People would ask me the difference between players of today and of the past, and truthfully it’s the education level of the players,” says Sexton, 69. “Players are much smarter, they eat better and exercise more.
“It’s just a different environment, more like the PGA Tour or the NFL or the NBA.”
Mercier, for example, must balance expenses, taxes, sponsorships and, as he says, diversification. “It’s important to never have all your eggs in one basket,” he says. “But I have a lot of money in play.”
His gambling basket includes both cash and tournament poker, sports betting, and playing open-face Chinese Poker on his phone against other poker players. He also invests in real estate and has a food-delivery business.
Mercier says he has an accountant with deep knowledge of gambling tax law, and keeps close track of entry fees, of which he estimates he has paid more than $5 million.
Only 10 percent of the players earn money in most tournaments, so competitors often swap pieces of each other. “The general public doesn’t have a good idea of how much action is being bought, sold and swapped,” Mercier says. “I’ll sell a lot of action on myself to reduce risk, which a lot of players do.”
Poker players make all kinds of bets on things you might never think of. Mercier says he had a “heavy action” on fellow pro Olivier Busquet, who won a mixed-martial arts fight against JC Alvarado, another poker player, on April 21.
Mercier, who attended high school near Fort Lauderdale, built up a bankroll playing poker online, then won $1.3 million in 2008 at age 21 in San Remo, Italy He then hit for $325K in Barcelona, Spain, and was on his way.
“You need some kind of liquid amount, but there should be an amount you don’t need,” Mercier says. “Having it just not sit in a bank is important. I’ve been working on it since San Remo.”
Earlier this year, Mercier entered a $25,500 buy-in tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. The event allowed players to re-enter after they were knocked out; Mercier entered three times, but only finished 14th. The top 13 received prize money, so Mercier, who had his eye on the top prize of $658K, went home with nothing.
“Sometimes variance in poker will chew you up and spit you out, then step on your face as you are lying on your back helpless,” he says. “It can be a brutal game sometimes but I can’t ever be too upset at a card game that has made me a millionaire and gives me all the freedom in the world.”
