Austrian pro wins $10M, denies 78-year-old in thrilling WSOP Super Main Event

Eric Wasserson was the heel, after his slowroll on Benny Glaser the day before. 

Belarmino De Souza and Peter Chien were both in the midst of the ultimate spin-ups. Not quite chip and a chair stories, but not far off. At the start of Day 4, Chien was 24/24 with just seven big blinds. De Souza had just 4bb at the start of the unofficial final table of 9. 

Franco Spitale was looking to make today’s big spin-up, coming in as the short stack of the final eight. 

Bernhard Binder was the dark horse and looked right at home on the huge final table. Check out his Hendon Mob, and you might be surprised to see him with just over $300K in earnings before today. That didn't tell the story, though. Binder has won it all online, including $1,834,484 in the GGMillion$ in February of this year, against the likes of Martin Finger, Roman Hrabec, and Ole Schemion.

One of the eight players would also become the first in history to hold a stack of over 1 billion in a major tournament, with 1.47 billion chips in play.

See below for what they were all playing for. That and $10 million.

Spitale eliminated in 8th ($1.1 million)

Spitale was first out after shoving AJ and running into Wasserson’s queens. Spitale went to sweat the runout with fellow Argentinian Nacho Barbero on the rail, but they couldn’t summon an ace to save him. 

Spitale had a huge smile on his face the whole time. He came in as the short stack and left with the minimum $1.1 million all players were guaranteed, but he made the absolute most of his time in the sun.

The agony of the elimination – Spitale with Nacho Barbero on the rail.

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Chien eliminated in 7th ($1.4 million)

Chien got his chips in great – AK vs. Binder’s AQ. Chien’s only thought would have been to avoid a queen, but he got blindsided. Binder picked up backdoor diamonds on the flop and went runner-runner diamonds to do it dirty.

Peter Chien made an epic run after starting Day 4 with the smallest stack of the 24 remaining players.

Miguel Cortes

Chip stacks on first break

1. Jean-Noel Thorel: 603,000,000 (120.6bb)
2. Bernhard Binder: 368,000,000 (73.6bb)
3. Belarmino De Souza: 147,000,000 (29.4bb)
4. Eric Wasserson: 127,000,000 (25.4bb)
5. Terrance Reid: 125,000,000 (25bb)
6. Natasha Mercier: 77,000,000 (15.4bb)

Mercier eliminated in 6th ($1.8 million)

Reid broke some hearts when he took the majority of Mercier’s chips. She shoved A8, he found AJ, and there was no drama on the board. Martin Kabrhel was in her corner, and he was stalking up and down, calling for the cards that she needed to chop on the river, but he couldn’t help. 

She went out the next hand with AQ against JNT’s K8. Cruelly, Mercier hit a queen on the turn, but JNT summoned up a king on the river. Kabrhel led the applause for an amazing run by Mercier. We talked to her afterwards – you can read that interview here.

AQ was quickly turning into the bogey hand. 

Binder got his chips in with it next and was up against Reid’s shorter stack and inferior A8. Reid flopped one eight and turned a second to earn himself a big double up and take his stack north of 200 million for the first time. 

Chip stacks on second break

1. Jean-Noel Thorel: 426,000,000 (71bb)
2. Bernhard Binder: 404,000,000 (67.3bb)
3. Terrance Reid: 224,000,000 (37.3bb)
4. Eric Wasserson: 206,000,000 (34.3bb)
5. Belarmino De Souza: 187,000,000 (31.1bb)

Wasserson out in 5th ($2.35 million)

Wasserson was the villain of the piece yesterday after his slowroll with aces on Benny Glaser. 

He left today with $2.35 million after jamming over the top of a raise from Binder. Binder had and needed some help to topple Wasserson’s . He found it on the flop when he paired his queen – and the turn when he improved to the flush. The dealer even found an ace on the river that also gave him an irrelevant straight. 

Eric Wasserson ran into an unstoppable force in Bernhard Binder.

Miguel Cortes

Chip stacks on third break

1. Bernhard Binder: 679,000,000 (84.8bb)
2. Jean-Noel Thorel: 414,000,000 (51.7bb)
3. Belarmino De Souza: 236,000,000 (29.5bb)
4. Terrance Reid: 118,000,000 (14.7bb)

Reid eliminated in 4th ($3 million)

Reid’s epic run came to an end in fourth place for an incredible score of $3 million. 

He was sitting in a terrible spot with the two big stacks on his left and had to make a move at some point. It came when he defended a 20K preflop bet and hit a piece of the flop. He jammed over the top of a Binder bet, but his middle pair was no match for Binder’s flopped flush with . 

We’re biased, so we’ll leave it to Henry Kilbane on the livestream comms to say what we were all thinking: “Terrance Reid, you absolute legend.”

Terrance Reid found himself with just 3% equity on the all-spades flop.

A few hands later, and Binder became the first poker player to hold a stack of more than 1 billion in a major tournament. He had dominated the final table from start to finish and looked almost certain to seal the win three-handed. 

De Souza eliminated in 3rd ($4 million) 

It was a monster cooler that finally saw De Souza hit the rail. 

Thorel limped the small blind with and De Souza checked with his . 

The flop was De Souza's but they were the last cards of the tournament to go his way. He bet 15 million, and Thorel called.

The dealer flipped the on the turn, and Thorel called another 15 million bet. 

Thorel made quads on the river, with De Souza making his full house. Kilbane summed it up when he said, "One of the most disgusting runouts in WSOP history." 

De Souza bet 90 million, Thorel jammed, and De Souza called to seal his fate. "Ooooh," he said when Thorel showed his hand.

Belarmino De Souza laddered all the way to a $4 million payday.

Miguel Cortes

Heads-up chip stacks 

1. Bernhard Binder: 905,000,000 (90.5bb)
2. Jean-Noel Thorel: 542,000,000 (54.2bb)

JNT had rocked his ‘Police’ cap through the final table, and he started laying the law down immediately heads-up. 

Within half an hour he’d taken a sizeable chip lead from Binder, without a showdown, and he became the second player in history to rock a 1 billion stack.

The two traded blows over the next two hours, though, and neither could gain an advantage that lasted. Both players were deep, too. 

By level 40, after three hours of trading blows, blinds were up to 8M/16M/16M, and the stacks were even again. Then, suddenly, all the chips flew in preflop. Binder had and Thorel had . Thorel couldn't hit on the runout, and Binder was crowned the 2025 WSOP Super Main Event champion. 

Talking with PokerOrg afterwards, Binder said, "This is as special as it gets. It's the biggest tournament alongside the WSOP Main Event. To celebrate with all my friends here is an unforgettable moment. To have two incredible scores in one year is just amazing – I'm lost for words."

So what comes next in 2026? 

"I don't know where I can go from here," Binder said with a smile. "I mean, maybe they can put a $100 million guarantee on this, so there's a bigger one next year."

Bernhard Binder and Jean-Noel Thorel played a long, grueling heads-up battle.

2025 WSOP Super Main Event results

1. Bernhard Binder: $10 million
2. Jean-Noel Thorel: $6 million
3. Belarmino De Souza: $4 million 
4. Terrance Reid: $3 million
5. Eric Wasserson: $2.35 million
6. Natasha Mercier: $1.8 million
7. Peter Chien: $1.4 million
8. Franco Spitale: $1.1 million

You can watch the entire final table livestream below.