The end of 2009 featured a variety of accolades awarded to members of the poker community. Among them was the Bluff Player of the Year award, which went to Team PokerStarsPro member Jason treysfull21Mercier (pictured at right). The Floridian earned his first bracelet after taking down a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event during the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $237,000, defeating fellow PocketFives.com member Steven PiKappRaider Burkholder heads-up. Now, Mercier is one of the hottest poker players on the planet.

In a recent poll of nine members of the poker media that appeared on ESPN.com, Mercier was listed as the fourth best player in the game, up two spots from its last release in December. The December installment, in fact, sparked a lively debate in Poker Discussionas to who the top 10 players in the game were. In February of 2009, Mericer won a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament during the L.A. Poker Classic for $35,000. One month later, he bested a field of 184 players in a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the Wynn Classic in Las Vegas for $81,000. Then, in May, Mercier took down another Omaha event, this time during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), for $86,000.
He wasn’t done there, however. Mericer recorded his first bracelet during the 2009 WSOP and signed on with PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, to be a sponsored pro. By September, everything was coming up Mercier. He finished fourth in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event for £267,000 and, one week later, won a £2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em contest at the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) London stop for another £115,000. To close out his 2009 run, Mercier won a $5,000 HORSE tournament during the Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $100,000. I’m exhausted just typing it.

Mericer finished with 1,427 Bluff Player of the Year Points, comfortably ahead of UB.compro Eric basebaldy Baldwin’s (pictured at left) 1,208. The runner-up, of course, won a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in April for $198,000. What followed was pretty impressive. Baldwin won his first WSOP bracelet after trumping the field in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. He earned $521,000 to boot and, one week later, finished third in the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em for an additional $259,000.

In October, Baldwin took fourth in the UB.com Aruba Poker Classic for $126,000 and signed on as a member of Team UB. Somehow, Baldwin wasn’t finished, as he won a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the Five Diamond in December for $256,000. Baldwin was named the CardPlayer Player of the Year for 2009 and finished as the runner-up in both the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance and Nightly Hundred Grand for a combined $60,000.

In 10th and 11th on the Bluff Player of the Year standings for 2009 were Mike goleafsgoehLeah (pictured at right) and Scott BigRiskky Clements, respectively. Leah won the Borgata $500,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack event in March for $319,000, while Clements recorded two top three finishes at the 2009 WSOP in Omaha events. Online, Leah recorded wins in the Full Tilt $85,000 Guaranteed and Sunday Night HORSE tournaments last year, while Clements won the $15,000 Super Turbo KO on the same site.

Also appearing in the top 20 were 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe jcada99 Cada, Christian charder Harder, Jordan scarface_79 Smith, and Bertrand ElkY Grospellier. Here were the top 20 finishers on the 2009 Bluff Player of the Year leaderboard:

1. Jason treysfull21Mercier – 1,427.98
2. Eric basebaldyBaldwin – 1,208.48
3. Cornel Cimpan – 1,108.90
4. David Paul Steicke – 946.52
5. Soheil Shamseddin – 908.17
6. Daniel Alaei – 896.18
7. Bertrand ElkYGrospellier – 860.96
8. Vitaly Lunkin – 815.83
9. Tommy Vedes – 785.39
10. Mike goleafsgoehLeah – 782.25
11. Scott BigRiskkyClements – 762.72
12. Scotty Nguyen – 758.73
13. Michael Binger – 747.30
14. Ville Wahlbeck – 743.03
15. Jeff Madsen – 727.62
16. Joe jcada99Cada – 724.83
17. Jeffrey Lisandro- 696.15
18. Christian charderHarder – 680.17
19. Chad Brown – 673.28
20. Jordan scarface_79 Smith – 655.33