Austria’s Bernhard Binder is your newest WSOP Super Main Event champion, defeating the legendary 78-year-old Jean-Noel Thorel (JNT) to win $10,000,000 and the illustrious WSOP bracelet. After previously having just $328,636 in live tournament cashes to his name, Binder immediately jumps all the way up to 5th on Austria’s all-time money list, and 171st overall.
Though Binder’s previous live tournament achievements may have been meager in comparison to the rest of the field, don’t be fooled – he’s one of poker’s greatest online endbosses. Earlier this year, back in February, he won the GGMillion$ for $1,834,484.
During this memorable run to poker greatness, Binder also achieved something that few would have ever believed possible in a live tournament setting: He became the first player at a major poker tournament to amass a billion chips.
After four days of grueling play, eight players returned to the official final table, having defeated the 2,891-entry field, which generated a massive $72,275,000 prize pool, destroying the $60,000,000 guarantee. All players were guaranteed $1,100,000, but had their eyes on the huge eight-figure payday.
How the chips fell
The first to go was Argentina’s Franco Spitale, who couldn’t spin his eight big blind stack up. After being dealt into the big blind, he had an even bigger hill to climb. His ace-jack couldn’t top Eric Wasserson’s pocket queens, but held his head up high after securing a career-high seven-figure score.
Canada’s Peter Chien, famously donning an Old School RuneScape shirt at the final table, suffered an awful bad beat to finish in seventh for $1,400,000. He got the money in an incredibly good spot with ace-king against Binder’s ace-queen. However, Binder would flop two diamonds for a backdoor flush draw before going runner-runner to crush Chien’s dreams.
Among the headliners was Natasha Mercier, wife of six-time WSOP bracelet winner Jason Mercier, who had a chance to record the largest-ever cash by a woman. While she needed a fourth-place finish to secure that honor, she fell just short, finishing in sixth for an impressive $1,800,000. Known for her incredibly daring play, her incredible run came to a brutal halt as her ace-queen was struck down by JNT’s king-eight, with the Frenchman spiking a king on the river.
The aforementioned WSOP bracelet winner and regular high roller Wasserson was also among the final eight, reaching the final table after famously slow-rolling Benny Glaser with aces with 10 players remaining. He would end up one spot better than Mercier, finishing in fifth for $2,350,000 after his ace-jack couldn’t top Binder’s king-queen.
Poker media professional Terrance Reid’s phenomenal story came to an end in fourth place, bagging $3,000,000 for his efforts. After defending the big blind with eight-seven of hearts off of a sub-10 big blind stack, he flopped middle pair in a three-way pot against Binder and Brazilian Belarmino De Souza. Binder, a runaway chip leader playing fast and loose, ended up flopping a flush. Reid got the money in with just a three percent chance and couldn’t find a miracle. Whether he continues reporting on the sidelines or retires to pursue a professional poker career remains to be seen.
The cooler of all coolers
Speaking of amazing stories, De Souza came into the unofficial nine-handed table with just four big blinds and looked as if he was going to bubble Day 5. However, he would parlay those four blinds into $4,000,000, though he would suffer one of the cruelest bad beats in the history of the World Series of Poker.
JNT limped eight-four offsuit from the small blind, and De Souza checked with ten-six from the big blind. De Souza looked to be in incredible shape on a T-6-4 flop. However, another four would come on the turn, and De Souza kept betting. JNT called once again. While many rivers would have saved the Brazilian, another four gave JNT quads against De Souza’s full house. Naturally, all of the money went into the middle, and the heads-up battle between JNT and Binder was on.
A battle for the ages
Both players came into heads-up play incredibly deep, with Binder holding a massive 91-54 big blind advantage. Though the billionaire JNT is used to playing the best in the world, few could have expected such a wildly entertaining heads-up battle.
The two would trade the chip lead for over three hours, until the blinds were even at 40 a piece heading into Level 40, when the blinds soared to 8,000,000/16,000,000. Binder would win a bunch of small pots straight away, and suddenly, JNT was down below 20 big blinds.
The winning moment
Then, out of nowhere, the two players got all in preflop. Binder’s ace-eight of clubs would hold against JNT’s king-queen offsuit, and WSOP Paradise had a new Main Event champion. Afterwards, Binder couldn’t help but thank his unbelievably supportive rail for hanging around from start to finish.
“That is the best. The best of all. If I was here alone and won this, it wouldn’t mean a fragment of what it means right now to celebrate with so many people. And to also have an impact for them, because a lot of them also had a share.”
