Isabelle Mercier Leaves Team PokerStars For Betclick

Isabelle Mercier has been a member of Team PokerStars for five years but has now left the site in order to “take on new projects.” Although at the time of her departure there was speculation as to what she was referring to when she announced she “currently has extensive projects, both nationally and internationally, in the world of poker,” some of the details regarding her comments have now began to surface.
Online gambling company Betclick is hoping to expand its operations into Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands and Romania to increase its overall market share of the industry and will be using Isabelle Mercier as its new poker ambassador to help with the online poker side of things.
“We are very strong on betting, but poker is not the strongest part of our offering,”a Betclick spokesman said. “The signing of Isabelle Mercier means we will be putting in place a strategy to develop and improve our offering, but this will not be put into action for a few months yet. It is part of our overall project to enhance our poker platform.”
Isabelle Mercier is truly one of the women superstars of the game and got started in poker at the Aviation Club de France where her talent was spotted by French poker legend, Bruno Fitoussi and quickly promoted from poker dealer to poker room manager. Four years later she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a professional poker player and so sold all her worldly possessions to get together a bankroll.
September 2004 saw Isabelle gain international recognition by winning the WPT Ladies Night Out Invitational II and earning the nickname “No Mercy” Mercier for her aggressive style at the table. PokerStars were quick to recruit the new starlet and soon after she was travelling the world representing PokerStars in various tournaments, which she says she prefers over the discipline of cash play.
Mercier has won over $1 million from online and live tournaments, including a third place finish at PokerStars Sunday Million for $115,000 and believes a woman’s finely homed instincts can give them an advantage at the poker table by being able to read their opponents “as long as they don’t let the men intimidate them.”
Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren said of her former team mate: “I’m sad that Isabelle has left Team Pro, but I do understand it. She’s now jumping off to try new things and have fresh adventures. Having said that, I would bet good money that we’ll still see Isabelle cropping up in the bigger tournaments, like Monte Carlo and the PCA. I hope so, because she’s one of my favorite people in poker.”