While the $10,000,000 top prize wasn’t in the cards for Natasha Mercier in the WSOP Super Paradise Main Event, her run to 6th place was still a memorable and impressive one.
The $1,800,000 she earned is now the fifth-largest-ever live tournament cash by a woman. A fourth-place finish or better would have topped Liv Boeree’s $2,800,000 score from this event last year.
Largest tournament cashes by a woman:
- Liv Boeree: $2,800,000 (4th - 2024 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event)
- Annette Obrestad: $2,013,733 (1st – 2007 WSOPE Main Event)
- Annie Duke: $2,000,000 (1st – 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions)
- Vanessa Selbst: $1,823,430 (1st – 2010 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event)
- Natasha Mercier: $1,800,000 (6th – 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event)
Mercier's day came to an end after she doubled up TJ Reid with A8 against AJ, and then after a double-up herself seemed possible, she lost AQ to K8 against Jean-Noel Thorel. Mercier turned a queen, but Thorel spiked a king on the river to send her to the rail.
Bittersweet symphony
While she had a smile on her face as she spoke to us, she couldn't hide her disappointment at the end of an epic run.
“I’m feeling sad, and I never thought I'd be sad. It's $1.8 million, and you're still sad because it's not what you wanted, you know? Not winning is always sad.”
Mercier had to pull some moves with the cards not falling for her.
“I felt really good the whole way, but I was card dead the last two days," she said. "I haven't had a playable hand. Maybe a few here and there, but really, I was completely card dead, and I think I did my best with that.”
Mercier certainly did, as stream chat boxes were filled with comments about how well she was playing with phrases like ‘badass,’ ‘gangsta’ and more throughout Day 4 as she ran timely bluffs to give herself the chance to make it as far as she did.
Mercier: I'm a mom first
As appreciative as she was for this best-ever run, she was even more so for her friends and family joining her here for the final table, with her sister Sandra and mom Ghada front and center on her rail.
“I wouldn't have been in this tournament if my mom wasn't here," she said, "because she was helping with the kids.
"I was feeling calm and comfortable leaving, and I was able to play in peace, so it meant the world to me that she was here, because that's the only way I would have played. Her being here and witnessing this is so great.“
In a fun side note, Natasha also now owns the largest career tournament score in her family, topping husband and six-time bracelet winner Jason Mercier, whose 2014 runner-up finish in the $100K Super High Roller earned him $1,622,181. It's a fact she says she’s going to have some fun with: “Oh, man. I'm gonna use that one for the rest of my life.”
While a seven-figure score could be life-changing for many, it doesn't mean we're going to see more of Mercier, unfortunately.
“I play when I can," she said. "This doesn't change things. I'm a mom first, and then, when I can play, I can play.”
