The long standing ambassador is the latest high profile player to leave the poker room, in order to spend more time with his growing family.

The Mercier family

One of the most accomplished and recognisable Team PokerStars Pros is leaving the company. Jason Mercier announced in a blog that he was bidding farewell to the site to be a husband to his wife Natasha, and a father to his new son Marco Henry.

Just like his fellow teammate Vanessa Selbst, who left PokerStars and poker itself last week, he cited the impossibility of managing a full travel schedule for the site with his new priorities.

After my son was born, I knew things were going to be different. One of the major things to address was my relationship with PokerStars. My contract was set to expire at the end of 2017, and I wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen there. I had a lot of questions rolling around my head. Do I even want to travel now? How much can I travel? Should I continue playing poker so much? How's it going to be on the road with a baby? Does PokerStars want me to do more? Is my wife going to continue to play poker? DO WE NEED A FULL TIME NANNY!!??

Mercier has made it clear that he is not retiring from poker and plans, among other things, to be at next year's PCA.

He has had a relationship with PokerStars since 2009 after winning EPT San Remo in 2008. He went on to become one of the most feared tournament players in the world, winning five bracelets, two WCOOP and five SCOOP titles, among his many accolades.

He is the third Team PokerStars Pro to leave the company this year, alongside the aforementioned Vanessa Selbst and also Felipe Ramos.

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