Hello from Isabelle Mercier
“Don't be fooled, Isabelle will show you No Mercy”
Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier was born on August 5, 1975 in Victoriaville, Quebec and is currently a member of the sponsored “Team PokerStars” poker team
Prior to turning to a poker career, she earned an undergraduate law degree from the Université de Montréal and practiced commercial law for a year. Then moved to Paris, France and earned a Masters Degree 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 2nd place in the €800 No Limit hold 'em tournament at the Masters Classic of Poker 2002 in Amsterdam, where she earned $53,499.
In 2004 Mercier won the World Poker Tour (WPT) Ladies' Night tournament to win the $25,000 first prize, where Mike Sexton nicknamed her “No Mercy.”
In 2005 she finished 10th in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo, earning €23,090, and outlasting players such as World Series of Poker (WSOP) runner-up Julian Gardner, WPT multi-tournament winner Gus Hansen, WPT season 2 champion Martin De Knijff and Barny Boatman. Also in 2005, she had three money finishes at the WSOP.
Mercier made her first EPT final table in February 2006 in Deauville, finishing 7th at a final table also featuring Ram Vaswani and Kirill Gerasimov.
As of 2007, her total live tournament winnings exceed $620,000.
This is the first instalment of her monthly column :WPT NIAGARA FALLS AND FOXWOODS, I've had a crazy couple of months travelling around the world. I've finished a book, produced some DVDs, signed a deal for a clothing line, started building a new website, hired a business manager AND a personal assistant! If you think that's crazy, you have to know that in the next five weeks, I'm going to spend 60 hours flying around the planet. That's a full week-and-a-half of work just in the air! I'm playing tournaments in Asia, Australia … all over the place. No wonder I need help!
But at least I did get the chance to spend some time in my home town, in Montréal, Canada, during the WPT Niagara Falls – the only WPT event in Canada. I love playing the Canadian Open…I'd love to win it for my country.
I decided to drive there this year. It's seven-hours from Montreal, so not too bad, and after I arrived I checked into my usual suite – which overlooks the Falls and is big enough for about 12 people!There were more than 500 players, which is amazing for a Canadian event, and all the top Canadian players were there including Daniel Negreanu and Evelyn Ng.
I didn't play great. By the first break I was in trouble, and when I came back from dinner I had a big problem really early. I had a pair of jacks so decided to move all in, but busted out to a guy with kings … so it was time to pack my bags and head back to Montreal. Every cloud has a silver lining though, and my new assistant drove me back to Toronto Airport and then I caught a flight home to Montreal – so it took me just two hours to get home!
I didn't stay long. I decided to head to the WPT in Foxwoods, which is always a great tournament with some really tough local players. There was also $1.7m for 1st place, which promised to make it worth the trip! The structure was fantastic. It was like someone had been to the Bellagio in Las Vegas to work out how it's done! There were five levels of 90 minutes with 15 minute breaks…and the day ended at 8.30pm. So you have plenty of time to relax…and come back fresh the next day. I, and a lot of pros, will play at Foxwoods EVERY year just because they've adopted this great structure.
I played on Day 1b and arrived just 15 minutes late – so I'm still bad, but getting better! Almost on the very first hand I got A, 6 of diamonds. We had an impressive starting stack of 30,000 and the blinds we 50/100. I made it 300 to go. I was in pretty early position. The guy behind me made it 575 total. The button called. I don't like my cards much in my position, but I have to call. Then I get the miracle, and I mean ABSOLUTE MIRACLE flop – 8, 9, K…all diamonds. I check. I know someone's going to bet after me so I am going for the check-raise. The button bets 1,000. I raise him to 2,000. I don't want him to think I have the flush, but I want to bet just enough that he thinks I'm being cautious, trying to protect a weak hand. He calls…and I start to think he has A-K. The turn comes…the ace of spades. Now I'm afraid he doesn’t have the A-K, and I don’t want to scare him away with this ace that just appeared, so I only bet 2,500. He calls. Bingo! The river is the jack of hearts. I have the absolute nuts…so I don't want to bet too much, but I want value – so I bet 6,000. Finally, he called…and I had plenty of chips for breakfast!
Next thing I know, Victor Ramdin sits down on my table. I'm not too upset by that. I'm in good shape, and I love playing with great players. You learn so much…and on top of that Victor is a good friend and PokerStars’ team-mate. So I was very happy to see him on my table…but not so happy to see he was on my left!
Sure enough, within two hours, he was starting to drive me a bit crazy! It was like he could see my cards. Every time I had nothing, he raised me. Every time I had something, he folded. He was winning almost every hand we played together…and I lost a lot of chips.
My stack just kept shrinking. By the last break I was down to 20,000. Then, with just 40 minutes to go, I only had 10,000 left. On the very last hand of the day, I finally won a few chips back. I hit pocket 8s in early position and the blinds were 300, 600 with an ante of 50. I made it 2,100 to go. Erica Schoenberg, who was sitting to my left, called – as did the big blind. The flop came 9,7,2 rainbow. The big blind checked. I checked. Erica checked. So I knew I had the best hand. The turn brought a seven, to pair the board. The big blind bet 3,000…which I figured was a bluff, since we all checked the flop. I decided to re-raise him all in with my 17,000. Erica thought for a long time before folding…and then the big blind folded immediately. So I was back up to 30,000 by the end of the day.
Day Two started well. I was up to 50,000 after a big hand where I hit queens and Kathy Liebert called my raise with A,J. Poor Kathy…the flop came J, 8, 3…so she got stuck. I bet 6,000, she moved all in and of course I called – I nearly doubled-up when the queens held.
A few hands later I turned over king, queen of spades in middle position. I raised to 3,200 and the big blind called. The flop came, 10, 9, rag rainbow. We both checked. On the turn came the four of hearts – which was the second heart on the board – and the big blind bets 2,300. I decided to call. I was sure I could take the pot down, I was sure I could bluff him out of it with so many potential cards on the river. And it came the ace of hearts. I've hit the card for my bluff!… so after he checked, I tried to make a value bet – I didn't want to make it look like I was trying to scare him away. I put in 6,200. I figured this was a really, really clever bet. But, after he took AGES to think about it, he called. How he had the guts to, I don't know, but he had J,9. He'd hit middle pair on the flop, called my bluff…and I was flying short-stacked again.
Now there were just 200 players left, and the first 50 places got paid. I was down to 30,000 again…and decided that I was going to bully my way to at least 100,000 by the end of the day. Then, guess who sat down on my table? Victor!
Thank God, this time, I had better position on him and was able to win my way back up to 65,000. That was when Victor started to cause me trouble again. I had a horrible, horrible last level where I had to fold every time I re-raised. I ended up back down on 30,000! I think I should have gambled more, especially against Victor. He raised me loads…and he couldn't have had a good hand every time!
On Day 3, I had to move pretty quick. I went in pretty much straight away with 7,7 – thinking Christmas had come early – but the button called reluctantly with 9,9 and busted me out!
I haven't had a very rewarding time financially in the last few weeks – but I've enjoyed every second of it.
So now I'm off around the globe again to play some more top-level poker. Off to Asia, Australia and the United States.
Living the dream.
And living out of a suitcase …
“Girl Power … Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier & Wendy Graaf at WSOP 2007″After meeting up with French Canadian beauty, Isabelle Mercier, WSOP 2007 on the aspirational All Africa Poker world wide tournament tours, Wendy Graaf, Group Marketing Manager of Piggs Peak Casino, was able to persuade her to write about her life as an international professional poker player, traveling the world in pursuit of great poker tournaments. We are honoured to bring you her monthly column, “No Mercy”.
