In what would turn out to be an actual “battle of the ages,” the youngest player at the final table of the 2025 WSOP Super Main Event was able to outlast the oldest player on the felt. 27-year-old Bernhard Binder defeated the start-of-day chip leader, 78-year-old Jean-Noel Thorel, in what was a thrilling heads-up battle. Binder, for his efforts, picked up the $10 million first-place prize, while Thorel had to settle for a $6 million consolation prize.
Storylines Aplenty at Final Table
The final eight in the 2025 WSOP Super Main Event, held during the WSOP Paradise at Atlantis in the Bahamas, was replete with big storylines. Thorel was one such subject, turning back the clock as a nearly octogenarian to challenge the “young ones” at the table. He held a monstrous chip lead as the only player over the 500 million mark in chips (567 million), but Binder, usually an online player, lurked in the second-place slot (211 million).
Most eyes on the table were on the second female to make the WSOP Super Main Event final table in as many years. Natasha Mercier, who once had an excellent career as a poker player before stepping to the side to become a mother and wife to six-time WSOP bracelet winner Jason Mercier, mirrored the run of Liv Boeree last year in attempting to win this WSOP bracelet. In third place, Mercier had the ammunition to challenge those on top and perhaps surpass Boeree’s 2024 achievement of a fourth-place finish.
One of the shorties at the final table, Franco Spitale, tried to make a stand at the final table, but it failed. Spitale would raise most of his stack and, after Eric Wasserson moved all-in from the big blind, Spitale was priced into a call for his tournament existence. Spitale’s A-J, however, was no competition for the two ladies that Wasserson held. After a ten-high board run, Spitale went to the rail in eighth, and Wasserson took over the second-place slot on the leaderboard.
Thorel, meanwhile, continued to add to his stack. He cracked the 600 million mark in chips when he forced Terrance Reid to lay down his hand (an appropriate play, as Thorel held pocket Aces) after Reid put a third of it in the center of the table. Binder was unyielding in his pursuit of the Frenchman, however, knocking off Peter Chien in seventh place (Binder caught a four-flush in diamonds on the river with his A♦ Q♣ against Chien’s A♥ K♥) to move over 300 million chips in his own right.
The first cracks in Thorel’s armor showed in a battle against Wasserson. Thorel had the best of it pre-flop with his pocket Jacks against Wasserson’s Big Slick, but it changed when an Ace came on the flop to put Wasserson in the lead. No help would come for Thorel, and he would ship 133 million chips to his opponent. The significant change would come a couple of hands later, however.
Binder opened the betting off the cutoff, and Thorel looked him up in the small blind in a clash of the two chip leaders. A 7-K-5 flop didn’t seem to help anyone, but it was enough to get a bet out of Binder, which Thorel check-called. Both players checked a six on the turn, but a second King came on the river, and the action took off. A second check-call from Thorel of a Binder bet of 35 million saw Binder turn up a K-J for a flopped pair and rivered trips, and Thorel (A-9) mucked his cards as Binder took the lead.
Binder and Thorel Dance Continues…to the End
This two-man fight between Binder and Thorel would continue through the remainder of the tournament. Mercier’s dreams of a major poker title would disappear after she doubled up Reid, dropping her to only seventeen million chips. Thorel would end up with those chips, administering a bad beat when his K♦ 8♦ found a King on the river over Mercier’s A-Q. While out in sixth place, Mercier still booked a $1.8 million win and moved into the Top Twenty in all-time money earnings for a woman ($3.3 million).
As much as he would try, Thorel would see the taillights of Binder disappearing before him. Thorel would gain some chips (against Wasserson), but then he would turn around and give them up to Binder. Although Reid would get lucky against Binder, earning a double when his A-8 miraculously made trip eights against Binder’s A-Q, it was but a hesitation in Binder’s drive to the title.
Binder would eliminate Wasserson in fifth and Reid in fourth to top the billion chip mark (never thought I’d see the day when I wrote THAT statistic) and, after Thorel took down Belarmino DeSouza in third, the two start-of-day chip leaders squared off for the title. Binder was about a 2:1 leader over Thorel, but the veteran Thorel was not going to roll over and let the younger Binder walk over him.
A four-hour battle would then commence, with Thorel even working his way back into the lead at a couple of points, but Binder was able to recollect his thoughts and drive to the championship. On the final hand, Thorel popped the action to 58 million and called an all-in from Binder to put his tournament at stake:
Thorel (button/small blind): K-Q
Binder (big blind): A-8
Binder had a slight edge pre-flop, and it never left through the 2-6-9-3 flop and turn. Unnecessarily, an eight came on the river to seal the hand for Binder and crown the Austrian the 2025 WSOP Super Main Event champion.
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 (USA), $3,000,000
5. Eric Wasserson (USA), $2.35 million
6. Natasha Mercier (USA), $1.8 million
7. Peter Chien (Canada), $1.4 million
8. Franco Spitale (Argentina), $1.1 million