Story- part 1

Las Vegas Review-

Rob Mercer calls himself a nobody in the poker world. Just a former semipro midstakes grinder who started playing 18 years ago.

But for a few hours Thursday, Mercer felt like a celebrity, fulfilling his dream of playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event.

“All these people rallied around me because of my story. Obviously they feel something for me, and I understand that,” Mercer said. “But I haven’t had that kind of love from people outside my family for a long time. It feels good to have somebody else outside my family put the kind of love and support into me and to know that they have my back.”

Mercer was part of a record-setting field for the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas.

His entry was made possible by the generosity of dozens in the poker community who donated money. That includes Nick Vertucci, the creator and producer of the “Hustler Casino Live” poker stream.

Mercer said he was diagnosed last year with terminal stage 4 colon cancer. The 37-year-old resident of Vallejo, California, started a GoFundMe last month in an effort to raise enough money to play the Main Event and had about $4,000 in donations when he shared his story 2½ weeks ago on the late-night Twitter Space of Alexander Zisiades, a musician and aspiring poker influencer.

Vertucci happened to be listening and was impacted by Mercer’s struggle.

“I was so overwhelmed, I just got on the speaker and said, ‘Hey, it’s booked. I got you,’” Vertucci said. “It chokes me up because we walk around so blessed and we don’t realize it. This kid’s fighting for his life, so I’m just so happy he gets to play.”

Part 2-

HE MADE IT UP!!!

Bankrolled Poker Player: ‘I Did Lie About Having Colon Cancer’

GoFundMe shuts down Rob Mercer, who now says he might have another kind of cancer