Bernhard Binder Wins WSOP Main Event and $10,000,000, Validating Previous Prediction

Bernhard Binder walked into the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas as an online grinder with $328,000 in career live earnings. He left on December 18, 2025, holding a gold bracelet and a check for $10 million. The 27-year-old Austrian outlasted 2,891 players in the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event, the largest guaranteed poker tournament ever held, and multiplied his lifetime earnings by a factor of 30 in a single night.

The $25,000 buy-in event carried a $60 million guarantee. Players exceeded that number by a wide margin, pushing the prize pool to $72,275,000. Binder took the largest piece of it after defeating 78-year-old French billionaire Jean-Noel Thorel in a heads-up match that stretched nearly four hours. The victory instantly reshaped Binder’s career and placed him among the game’s top earners.

The Final Hand

Blinds sat at 8,000,000–16,000,000 when Thorel opened to 58,000,000 from the button with K♦Q♠. Binder looked down at A♣8♣ in the big blind and moved all in. Thorel called for his remaining 309,000,000. The board ran out in Binder’s favor, and the tournament was over.

The hand ended one of the most notable runs in recent poker history. Binder remained composed throughout the final table, showing little sign of the pressure attached to a record-setting payout. His willingness to apply pressure in key moments defined the closing stages of the event.

A Historic Payday for the Runner-Up

Thorel earned $6,000,000 for second place, pushing his lifetime earnings past $27.8 million. He remains France’s top tournament earner by a comfortable margin. The businessman, who built his fortune in science as a biologist, pharmacist, and entrepreneur, came up short against someone 51 years his junior.

Despite the loss, Thorel’s performance reinforced his reputation as one of poker’s most durable high-stakes competitors. His deep run highlighted the breadth of experience present at the final table.

A Prediction That Arrived Ahead of Schedule

Mario Mosböck called it weeks before the cards fell. The high-stakes poker player named Binder as one of the best in the game right now, someone he expected to crush tournaments in 2026. Binder collected $10 million before that prediction had time to age. Mosböck pointed out that Binder had only played poker for about three years, describing him as a sharp, fast learner who would win big given time.

That timeline compressed faster than expected. Binder now sits fifth on Austria’s all-time money list behind Matthias Eibinger, Thomas Muehlocker, Samuel Mullur, and Daniel Rezaei. His rise from relative obscurity to the top tier of tournament poker unfolded at an unusually rapid pace.

A Year of Breakout Wins

This was not the first seven-figure score of 2025 for Binder. Earlier in the year, he won the GGMillion$ Main Event on GGPoker, taking home $1.8 million from a 1,226-entry field and a $12,260,000 prize pool. That win came in a $10,300 buy-in tournament and represented a major leap in his career trajectory.

The Super Main Event victory eclipsed it completely. Binder’s two biggest cashes in 2025 now total $11.8 million, a figure that ranks among the strongest single-year runs in recent poker history. His previous largest live cash before this year was $64,500, according to The Hendon Mob.

Mosböck noted after the win that Binder started playing poker in 2021. Four years later, he owns a WSOP bracelet and sits among Austria’s all-time leaders, an achievement that typically takes far longer to reach.

The Final Table

The Super Main Event paid 436 players. The final eight split $29,650,000 between them, underscoring the scale of the tournament.

Natasha Mercier, a Lebanese pro based in Fort Lauderdale, entered the final table with a chance to surpass Liv Boeree’s record for the largest poker tournament cash by a woman, set at $2.8 million in last year’s Super Main Event. She finished sixth for $1.8 million, falling short of the record but adding another deep run to a résumé that includes two WSOP Circuit rings and more than $1.5 million in live earnings.

Terrance Reid, a poker media member who writes for PokerOrg, crossed the $1 million career earnings mark during Day 3 and continued his run. His fourth-place finish earned $3 million, turning his best tournament performance into a career-defining result.

A Field Full of Names

The 2,891-entry field featured numerous established professionals. Martin Kabrhel finished 56th. David Coleman, a recent bracelet winner, placed 31st. Chad Eveslage finished 29th. Faraz Jaka reached 13th. Chalie Hook, fresh off a $50,000 pot-limit Omaha bracelet at WSOP Paradise, finished 14th.

None of them reached the final table. Binder did. His path through a field stacked with elite players highlighted both the depth of competition and the difficulty of reaching the end.

What Comes Next

The win earned Binder 1,600 PGT points, placing him inside the top 10 on the leaderboard. He joins Max Neugebauer as an Austrian WSOP Main Event champion after Neugebauer won WSOP Europe in 2023.

With multiple major results now on his résumé, Binder enters 2026 as one of the most closely watched players on the circuit. Expectations have shifted quickly, and future performances will determine whether this breakthrough marks the start of sustained success.

Conclusion

Bernhard Binder’s victory in the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event represents more than a single tournament win. It illustrates how quickly modern players can rise by combining online experience with high-stakes live results. From a modest live résumé to a $10 million payday, Binder’s run reshaped his career in a matter of days.

As poker continues to evolve, performances like this highlight the impact of preparation, adaptability, and timing. Binder arrived in the Bahamas as a talented grinder and left as a WSOP champion whose name is now firmly written into poker history.