Just weeks ago, high-stakes poker player Mario Mosböck predicted that Bernhard Binder would be one of poker's breakout stars of 2026. The 27-year-old Austrian manifested that prediction a few weeks early by taking down Event #11: $25,000 Super Main Event at 2025 World Series of Poker Paradise for $10,000,000.
Earlier this year, Binder, who is primarily an online player, won the GGMillion$ Main Event for $1.8 million. But he won more than five times that today, as well as his first WSOP bracelet, after defeating France's Jean-Noel Thorel in a nearly four-hour heads-up battle.
There was a 51-year age gap between Binder and Thorel. They were the youngest and oldest players at a final table that also included high-stakes pro and bracelet winner Eric Wasserson, poker media's Terrance Reid and Natasha Mercier, a longtime grinder and wife of poker superstar Jason Mercier.
"(Thorel's) a special opponent, and playing heads-up against him is challenging because there are more unexpected things (that) happen than (with) a lot of other opponents," Binder told PokerNews in a winner's interview. "But yeah, it was a great challenge."
The $60 million guaranteed Super Main Event, the largest guaranteed poker tournament in history, had 2,891 runners — with a few players who were in for over a dozen bullets — for a prize pool of $72,275,000.
$25,000 Super Main Event Final Table Results
| 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 |
Battle of the Ages
There were plenty of storylines to follow as the record-setting event reached its final table of eight.
There was Natasha Mercier looking to make history by surpassing Liv Boeree's $2.8 million cash in last year's super Main Event — the largest-ever poker tournament cash for a woman. There was also Terrance Reid trading in his press badge for a starting stack and making a run at a life-changing score after an already impressive two years of poker.
And then there was Eric Wasserson, a longtime high-stakes pro and Legends Room fixture who won his first bracelet last year in the Bahamas, who replaced aspiring color commentator Martin Kabrhel as the tournament's villain on Day 4 with a sickening slow roll of eight-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser.
But there would be no bad karma for "EWass" on Day 5. He quickly eliminated Argentina's Franco Spitale in eighth place as his pocket queens held up against the Argentinian's ace-jack, and he was later able to get away from a rivered straight against the flopped flush of Binder.
Peter Chien was less fortunate at the final table and went out in seventh place to the runner-runner flush of Binder, despite having had his opponent dominated.
Mercier, whose supportive sister, Sandra Barbour, flew in from Florida to watch her older sibling play for millions, was another victim of bad runouts. The stay-at-home mom and longtime poker player found herself all in with ace-queen against the king-eight of Thorel, but a rivered king ended Mercier's run in fifth place for $1,800,000.
Wasserson was the next player to fall at the hands of Binder. He got it in with ace-jack against the king-queen, but four diamonds on the board had Wasserson drawing dead to the river.
Speaking of drawing thin to made flushes, Reid fell in fourth when he check-jammed middle pair only for Binder to snap him off with a flopped flush. There would be no runner-runner full house or quads as the poker journalist's run reached an end.
Belarmino De Souza, who earlier folded a straight in what high-stakes pro Chris Brewer called "the craziest poker hand," fell to Thorel in third place to make way for a marathon heads-up battle between the elder Frenchman and the Austrian solver pro.
When PokerNews told Binder he had folded his opponent off a chop, he called the hand "incredible."
"I didn't know that he had jack-ten as well," he said. "I was all in for value."
Thorel, a regular on the Triton circuit who received high praise on social media from Jason Koon ahead of the final table, put up an intense fight against the heads-up opponent five decades younger than him, and did it with a smile.
There were virtually no all-ins in the heads-up match until the final hand as stacks got shallow. Thorel moved all in with king-queen and couldn't pull ahead of Binder's ace-eight.
"It's Amazing to Have Such Good Friends"
Binder's rail, filled with Austrian poker pros, was with him throughout the full final table, and there's audio to prove it. The rowdy rail — wearing matching "Team Binder" shirts — cycled through chants like "Walking in a Binder Wonderland" and others inspired by Austrian musician DJ Ötzi.
"That is the best. The best of all. If I was here alone and win 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," Binder said.
One of those friends on the rail was Samuel Mullur, who Binder called "my best friend for forever, basically," and who won a bracelet of his own here in the Bahamas at the 2023 WSOP Paradise festival.
"When he wins something big, I think I'm more happy for him than he is for himself, and when I win something big, I think he's more happy for me than I am for myself," Binder said. "It's amazing to have such good friends."
That wraps up PokerNews' coverage of the Super Main Event and the WSOP Paradise festival. Head to the live reporting portal for highlights from the series in the Bahamas.
