Poker Writer
The WSOP Paradise Super Main Event wrapped up late on Thursday with Bernhard Binder defeating Jean-Noel Thorel in a long heads-up battle to win the $10 million top prize and the WSOP bracelet.
The Austrian online pro was wearing a CoinPoker patch throughout the final table. He took control early on in the final day with eight players left and quickly became the main threat to the final table’s big chip leader, Thorel.
Binder and the 78-year-old Thorel became the main opposing adversaries of the final table. The two of them collected the chips while the rest of the table jockeyed for better positioning for the huge pay jumps.
Binder and Thorel Battle For Hours
The culmination of the final table was a multi-hour heads-up battle between Binder and Thorel. Over three hours of play, the two exchanged medium-sized pots back and forth with neither player being able to string several in a row to take a huge lead.
In one hand Thorel was one river call away from the title. Thorel held second pair on a board of A♠7♣9♦8♣4♠ holdingJ♣9♣. Binder had nothing withQ♦10♦. Binder pulled the trigger and raised all in over a bet of 80 million from Thorel. All the Frenchman needed to do was say call but he could not do it and Binder took a vital pot for the chip lead.
After that hand, the battle continued for another one hour and 45 minutes. Thorel slowly lost some of his aggression. Binder started winning a larger share of the pots before he eventually finished it off.
Milestone Live Poker Win For Binder
According to the CardPlayer archives Binder was just shy of $400,000 in career live poker earnings before this win. But those numbers did not tell the whole story of his poker prowess. The 27-year-old is more of an online player and has many massive career scores on the online felt. The largest of which was when he won a GGMillions event in February for over $1.8 million.
Binder had an enthusiastic rail supporting him the entire time. His rail had custom-made shirts that had clever quips and plays on the name ‘Binder’.
Oh So Close For French Billionaire
The runner-up was arguably the story of the day and of the final stages of the entire tournament. Thorel is a 78-year-old who was already France’s all-time money leader with over $21 million in earnings. He captured the attention of the fans with bold play to build a huge stack as he entered the final table.
The high-roller regular amassed a fortune in his life by founding the successful skin care and beauty company, NAOS (Bioderma). With a net worth estimated to be in the billions, Thorel plays poker only for the challenge, with even the steepest poker prize money being of no consequence to him.
This result was yet another runner-up finish for him as he had five such finishes in high-profile Triton and EPT events since 2023.
Reid and Mercier Among Other Storylines
The WSOP Paradise Super Main Event final table had several interesting storylines heading into the final day. Eight players entered the day all with their own story.
- Natasha Mercier, wife of six-time WSOP bracelet winner Jason Mercier, had the chance to set the record for the largest ever cash for a woman at a poker tournament. The record had been set the previous year in the very same WSOP Paradise Super Main Event when Liv Boeree finished in fourth place for $2.8 million. Mercier would fall short of that mark after she was eliminated in sixth place for $1.8 million.
- Poker media and YouTuber Terrance “TJ” Reid was another player who many followed to the final table. The American, who has worked with a variety of poker media, most prominently for PokerOrg, made the run of a lifetime to blow past his previous best career cash of $192,000. He was able to climb the payout ladder to a fourth-place finish, earning a life-changing $3 million.
- Belarmino de Souza was the representative for the poker crazed Brazil. His third-place finish for $4 million shot him up into the top ten of Brazil’s all-time money list.
- WSOP bracelet winner Eric Wasserson was the hot topic of the event prior to the final table after his slowroll of Benny Glaser on the final table bubble. The ensuing drama dominated the discourse of the tournament’s penultimate day. There were no such theatrics for Wasserson at the final table. He finished in fifth place for a career-best cash of $2.3 million.
