This High Roller Predicted Big Things for the WSOP Super Main Event Champion
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If you have not heard much about Bernhard Binder before this week, you can be forgiven. But that is exactly why PokerNews talks to the players who know who is coming through next.
Long before Binder found himself winning the record-breaking WSOP Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise, three-time Triton Poker champion Mario Mosböck was already sounding the alarm.
“I think the main one, I mean, Samuel Mullur is already on there,” Mosböck said when asked about who will be the breakout stars in 2026. “I think Bernhard Binder is probably one of the best players at the moment.”
That prediction aged extremely well.
Binder went on to take down the WSOP Super Main Event, a tournament that smashed its record-breaking $60 million guarantee. A field of 2,891 entries built a massive $72,275,000 prize pool, with $10,000,000 and a WSOP Super Main Event bracelet heading the way of the Austrian.
From Obscurity to Center Stage
Binder returned for the final day second in chips from the eight remaining players and navigated his way to victory. Unsurprisingly, the eight-figure score represents the biggest score of his career by a staggering margin.
Prior to this run, Binder’s largest recorded cash stood at $64,500, earned for a 24th-place finish in the $25,000 WPT Global Slam at Triton Jeju II. His total live tournament earnings before WSOP Paradise were just $328,636, making this breakout performance impossible to ignore.
Mosböck, however, was never surprised.
“Binder's also playing live, and has only played poker for like two and a half, three years, which is insane,” he said. “Incredible, sharp guy, super fast learner and fantastic poker player. So I think he will absolutely crush, and it’s just a question of time until he wins a lot of tournaments.”
“He’s probably the one that nobody has on the fantasy football team, but he will be printing.”
A Final Table Packed With Storylines
Binder win came amid a final table that delivered several notable exits. Franco Spitale was eliminated in eighth place before Peter Chien bowed out in seventh. Natasha Mercier, wife of six-time bracelet winner Jason Mercier, saw her impressive run end in sixth place for $1.8 million.
Mercier’s deep finish marked the second straight year a woman has reached the WSOP Super Main Event final table. Last year, Liv Boeree finished fourth, earning $2.8 million, the largest cash ever recorded by a woman at the time.
The trend reflects what has been a monster year for women in poker. At the WSOP in Las Vegas, Leo Margets ended a 30-year drought by becoming the first woman to reach the WSOP Main Event final table since 1995.
The WSOP Super Main Event performance has clearly validated Mosböck’s prediction. A player with just a few years of live tournament experience has announced himself on poker’s biggest stage, outlasting thousands in the most lucrative guaranteed event the game has ever seen.
WSOP Paradise Super Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bernhard Binder | Austria | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | Belarmino De Souza | Brazil | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | Terrance Reid | United States | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Eric Wasserson | United States | $2,350,000 |
| 6 | Natasha Mercier | United States | $1,800,000 |
| 7 | Peter Chien | Canada | $1,400,000 |
| 8 | Franco Spitale | Argentina | $1,100,000 |
