Mercier
Shows No Mercy
Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier (the instant
nickname courtesy of quick-witted World
Poker Tour commentator Mike Sexton) played
aggressively and shrewdly, ran over the
table and scored a convincing win at Ladies
Night Out II, a Legends of Poker/ WPT
invitational filmed event. Her prize:
a $25,000 Bellagio seat. Mercier, a resident
of Quebec, Canada, has been a lawyer,
blackjack dealer, poker dealer and poker
room manager at the Aviation Club in Paris,
a post she quit in January to play professionally.
She is also writing a poker book, together
with Gus Hansen and Paul Magriel, focusing
on big buy-in, no-limit tournament strategy.
The
big news, apart from Mercier's win, was
the second-place finish by Cuiling "Lavinna"
Zhang. She played after winning the 353-player
Ladies Poker Party event the day before.
Zhang started playing poker a few months
ago and this was just her second tournament
and first no-limit event. Afterwards,
Mercier said she thought Zhang was her
toughest opponent. "When I raised, she
would come back on top of me. "I didn't
like that at all." Still, when they got
heads-up, Mercier had a huge chip advantage,
1,240,000 to 260,000 for Zhang, and it
took but six hands to finish her off.
This
may have been a ladies event, but nobody
at this table, to use the male chauvinist
term, played like a little girl. Each
of the six women started with $250,000
in chips. That didn't seem like much when
blinds started at $5,000-$10,000 and went
up every 40 minutes, but this, after all,
was for a TV show, not a tournament marathon.
Wendeen Eolis later she had to adjust
playing what were, in essence, short stacks.
Eolis, incidentally, played to the audience
by donning dark glasses each time she
was all in. Mercier later played back
at her, slipping on her own shades whenever
Eolis did.
Action
started out relatively restrained as the
women felt each other out, none caring
to be the first out. In the first 21 hands
there were only two all-in moves. Defending
champion Clonie Gowan was first out on
hand 22, one hour into play. She moved
in from the small blind with pocket 5s,
and Mercier called with A-8. The board
came 3-3-2-A and Gowan missed her six-outer
(a 5, or a 4 for a straight). The attractive
and personable Gowan lives in Dallas,
Texas, owns a travel agency with her husband
and has a second in Costa Rica in addition
to her Ladies Night win last year.
Three
hands later, Mercier hauled in another
big pot. With a board of Q-8-6-10, Zhang
bet $35,000, Mercier raised $75,000, Zhang
popped it for another 100k and then folded
when Mercier moved all in for 170k more.
When blinds went to $8,000-$16,000 with
$2,000 antes one hand later, Mercier's
aggressive raising had gotten her the
lead with $473,000, followed by $353,000
for Eolis, $340,000 for Zhang, $232,000
for Sharon Goldman and $102,000 for Cyndy
Violette.
Violette,
a high-stakes Atlantic City side game
player (as high as $2,000-$4,000), who
won her first World Series bracelet in
stud hi-lo this year, was next out. She
was all in from the small blind with K-7
against Zhang's Q-5. Zhang outdrew her
when a queen flopped, and now four were
left.
Two
levels later, there were still four left,
but blinds now had zoomed to $20,000-$40,000
with $5,000 antes, meaning there was $80,000
in dead money on each hand. Mercier still
led with $670,000, with everyone else
in the $200-$300,000 range. Mercier, still
showing no mercy, hit the $700,000 mark
when she check-raised Zhang, who then
folded.
Eolis,
who owns a legal affairs consulting firm
and was formerly an advisor to New York
governor George Pakaki, holds a number
of poker records, including being the
first woman to finish in the money at
the World Series championship. Tonight
she went out fourth when she moved in
for $100,000 with A-10. Her sunglasses
didn't intimidate Goldman, who beat her
with pocket jacks.
Continuing
her steamroller ride, Mercier hit the
$900,000 mark when she bet $120,000 with
four clubs on board, got a call from Goldman
and showed a winning 10c. Goldman now
had about $450,000, Zhang $150,000. Goldman
is married to Dan Goldman, marketing vice-president
for PokerStars. She has two WPT cash-outs,
23rd on their Caribbean cruise, 7th in
their Celebrity Invitational. She finished
third tonight when she moved in with Ad-5d.
She was in bad shape when Mercier called
with As-Qs and couldn't help.
Mercier,
with a huge lead, now faced the Chinese-born
housewife who learned poker from her pro
husband. Play proceeded after the money
ceremony when WPT hostess Shana Hiatt
pulled a red velvet cord to release a
shower of money on the two finalists.
In the first five hands heads-up there
were five all ins, and one confrontation,
which Zhang won by pairing an 8 to beat
Mercier's ace-high. Finally, right after
blinds jumped to $50,000-$100,000 with
$10,000 antes, Mercier moved in from the
button/small blind with Q-8 and Zhang
was forced to call with Q-7. When the
board came A-A-2-8, Mercier jumped up
and began shaking hands, thinking Zhang
was drawing dead. A bit premature, because
another queen would have brought a split.
But it didn't come and Mercier was the
winner and champion.
BIOGRAPHY
Isabelle
Mercier, born in 1975 in Canada, has a
law degree and a masters in international
law. She started work as a blackjack dealer
in Montreal at 21, later worked as a poker
dealer at the Aviation Club and then took
care of foreign players, communication,
publicity, and other office duties at
the club. She won a championship event
at Turning Stone in New York and has a
second at a major poker event in Holland.
Paul
"Quack-Quack" Magriel, her forthcoming
poker book co-author, was coaching from
the sidelines tonight. He was pleased
at how aggressively she played. "She pushed
the other girls around. She bluffed. She
deserved to win," he said. He said their
forthcoming book on how to win big tournaments
will explode some poker "myths," such
as the conventional wisdom that strategy
early in tournaments should be survival.
"We will emphasize accumulating chips,"
he explained.
Max Shapiro
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