Michael Mizrachi has just won Event 2 of the 2010 WSOP, ‘The Poker Player’s Championship’, after defeating a field of 116 players over six days to collect a WSOP bracelet and the $1.56 million first place prize.
The prestigious $50,000 buy-in Poker Player’s Championship replaced the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E event of last year, and aside from the WSOP Main Event, is considered the most prestigious event in the tournament.
It is generally famous for attracting some of the top players and high rollers of the game, all looking to test their all-around poker skills over eight rotating poker disciplines. The final table, however, saw only no-limit Texas Hold ‘em played, so as to appeal to a wider TV audience.
The 29 year old poker pro, known as “the Grinder”, knew he had a difficult task ahead of him considering a first rate final table line-up, which included his brother Robert Mizrachi, Daniel Alaei, John Juanda, Mikhail Thuritz, David Baker, David Oppenheim, and Vladimir Schmelev.
However, Michael Mizrachi systematically set about eliminating the opposition, including his brother Robert Mizrachi in fifth place, to eventually force an heads-up encounter against Russian former chess prodigy now turned poker pro Vladimir Schmelev of St. Petersburg.
By 7am Las Vegas time, Mizrachi had dispatched Schmelev, who took home $963,375 for his troubles, to win his first WSOP bracelet and collect a whooping $1,559,000 top place prize.
Mizrachi made the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently, when he had his home and a condo foreclosed due to $339,000 worth of back taxes owed by him to the Internal Revenue Service.
Michael Mizrachi’s latest victory will go a long way to repairing some of the damage suffered from the incident although, as is often the way with high buy-in tournaments, his backers will receive their cut of his action first.
“We will have to see how much of the winnings will go to Mike after expenses are paid. So we will have to wait until the dust settles before we decide what to do next,” commented Steven Chung, Mizrachi’s lawyer.
