Isabelle Mercier (born August 5, 1975, in

Victoriaville Victoriaville () is a town in south-central Quebec, Canada, on the Nicolet River. Victoriaville is the seat of Arthabaska Regional County Municipality and a part of the Centre-du-Québec (Bois-Francs) region. It is formed by the 1993 merger of ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

) is a professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player. Mercier originally learned to play poker as a child, but prior to turning to a poker career, she earned an undergraduate

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

degree from the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

and practiced

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

for six months. She then moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

while working as the poker room manager at the Aviation Club de France, before turning to poker full-time. During her time working at the Aviation Club she was nominated for Staff Person of the Year twice at the European Poker Awards. She first made a name for herself by finishing in second place in the €800 No Limit hold 'em tournament at the Masters Classic of Poker 2002 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, where she earned $53,499. In 2004 Mercier won the

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the ...

(WPT) Ladies' Night tournament and the $25,000 first prize, where

Mike Sexton Michael Richard Sexton (September 22, 1947September 6, 2020) was an American professional poker player and commentator. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009. Early years Sexton was a gymnast and attended Ohio State University, wh ...

nicknamed her "No Mercy." In 2005, she finished tenth in the

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker Poker tournament, tournaments created by John Duthie (poker player), John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas ...

(EPT) Grand Final in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

, earning €23,090. Also in 2005, she had three money finishes at the

WSOP The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...

. Mercier made her first EPT final table in February 2006 in

Deauville Deauville () is a communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados department, Normandy (administrative region), Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its port, harbour, Race track, race course, marinas, con ...

, finishing seventh at a final table also featuring fellow professionals

Ram Vaswani Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani (born 1 September 1970, from Finchley, Greater London) a former professional poker player and the youngest member of The Hendon Mob, a group of professional poker players. He resides in Finchley with his wife Jackie a ...

and

Kirill Gerasimov Kirill Gerasimov (, born 5 June 1971, in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian professional poker player. Personal life Gerasimov was mentored in poker by professional Marcel Lüske. Gerasimov himself went on to mentor former tennis professional ...

. Mercier has her own instructional

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and appeared in the documentary ''That's Poker''. In January 2008, she released her own biography: ''Profession : bluffeuse'' (Profession: Bluffer), in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and printed in France by

Flammarion Flammarion may refer to: * Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), French astronomer and author * Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (1877–1962), French astronomer, second wife of Camille Flammarion * Sylvie Flammarion (1836-1919), French feminist and paci ...

. On April 27, 2009, Mercier won the

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Androi ...

' Ante Up for Africa charity tournament in

. The final table included fellow Canadian

Daniel Negreanu Daniel Negreanu (; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player who has won seven World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. In 2014, independent poker ranking service Global Poker ...

, Lithuanian Tony G, John Duthie (creator of the

), Italian pro Dario Minieri (who finished third), and English soccer star

Teddy Sheringham Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham (born 2 April 1966) is an English football manager and former player. He played as a forward, mostly as a second striker, in a 24-year professional career. Sheringham was part of the Manchester United team tha ...

(who came in second). On July 12, 2009, Mercier finished 3rd in the PokerStars Sunday Millions, cashing for $115,000. Until 2009, she was a member of the

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

cardroom's "Team PokerStars" group of sponsored players. By the end of 2009, Mercier left the PokerStars pro team and on December 2, 2009, joined gambling giant BetClic as a

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

for their online poker site. Mercier won the very first World Championship of Open Face Chinese Poker in Prague in 2015. Since 2017, Isabelle Mercier is an ambassador for cryptocurrency poker site CoinPoker. She regularly plays tournaments and OFC on the platform, and has a dedicated weekly tournament with a bounty to win. Mercier's total live tournament winnings exceeded $1,200,000 as of 2015.

References

External links

Card Player profile

Hendon Mob profileWPT profile

WSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercier, Isabelle 1975 births Canadian poker players Female poker players Living people People from Victoriaville Université de Montréal alumni World Poker Tour winners