| 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. --Max Shapiro
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. |
