Isabelle 'No Mercy' Mercier

Isabelle Mercier is one of the very few women who play poker professionally. She was born in 1975, in Canada, and she attended the University of Montreal where she obtained her degree in Law. She practiced commercial law for a year before she moved to Paris, where she attended Sorbonne University to pursue a Master degree in International Law. Meanwhile, she became the poker room manager of the Aviation Club de France, and never returned to the practice of law.

Isabelle has been the TV commentator for the last three editions of the World Poker Tour Championships at the Aviation Club in Paris. She has also been nominated twice for the “European Poker Awards” in the “Casino Staff Person of the Year” category. In addition, she has been a poker writer during two years before she decided to quit poker room management in order to play poker full-time.

Isabelle has been playing poker professionally for just over a year. Nevertheless, she has already set her mark in the poker world and won over $US 250,000 in poker tournaments. Aside a second place she made a few years ago in Europe, while she was still working at the ACF, she has made a dozen of tournaments final tables this year, and won a No Limit event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Besides, and more crucially, she has won the Ladies’ event of the World Poker Tour in Los Angeles on September 1st, 2004. Because of the aggressive style of poker she used to defeat her opponents, she has instantaneously been nicknamed Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier.

She recently won the televised World Poker Tour ‘Ladies Night Out II’ and a No Limit event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. So how does she compare women to men at the table? ‘I think a woman has a sixth sense and intuition which is crucial in poker – its very important. I think women are as good if not better than men – its coming!’

She has decided to play in a number of World Series events this year and maybe, just maybe, we could be crowning our first female world champion a few months from now...