Greg Merson wins 2012 Card Player Player of the Year title

LAS VEGAS (PRESS RELEASE) -- Twenty-four-year-old poker pro Greg Merson from Laurel, Maryland is the 2012 Card Player Player of the Year, sponsored by Lock Poker.

Merson successfully kicked a serious drug habit just over one year ago before going on to win two World Series of Poker bracelets in the summer – the $10,000 buy in no-limit hold’em six max championship and the $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event - netting himself just over $9.66 million in the process.

This enabled him to successfully fended off a strong and sustained challenge from runner-up Dan Smith.

Las Vegas resident Smith won a remarkable six events in 2012 and made four other final tables collecting over $3.67 million along the way.

He fell just short of the Player of the Year title scoring 5,040 points – just 60 less than Merson who told Card Player after his main event victory, “I’m just so lucky to even be alive. When I won [my first] bracelet I just started crying. To have a second chance at life and to do what I want to do — it’s amazing.”

A spokesperson for Card Player Magazine & CardPlayer.com said, “Greg Merson is a worthy champion, joining the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi and Ben Lamb in the pantheon of greats who have secured the title with a year of outstanding poker triumphs. In Greg’s case it was in the face of additional adversity and his World Series of Poker victories will live long in the memory.”