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Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi Leads WSOP $50k Players Championship Final Table

Final Eight Chasing The Bracelet and $1.45 Million

by Erik Fast  |  Published: Jun 28, 2012

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Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi

The final table is set in 2012 World Series of Poker Event No. 45, the $50,000 Poker Players Championship eight-game event, and the remaining field of eight is absolutely star studded.

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who won this same event in 2010 for more than $1.5 million, holds the chip lead heading into Thursday’s final table and is looking to become the first player ever to capture this prestigious title twice.

Just barely behind Mizrachi in the chip counts sits Andy Bloch, who finished runner-up in this event in its inaugural running in 2006, is looking to finish the job this time around and put his name on the David ‘Chip’ Reese Memorial Trophy, named after the legendary poker pro who beat Bloch heads-up the first time around. Incredibly, this is Bloch’s fourth cash in six attempts at this title.

“I am really excited to be back here at this final table. I won a bracelet earlier this year, but this is the one that I really want to win,” said Bloch.

Andy Bloch

Rounding out the final table are Chris Klodnicki, Stephen Chidwick, high-stakes cash game specialist Luke “FullFlush1” Schwartz, two-time gold bracelet winner Bill Chen, Roland Israelashvili and Bruno Fitoussi.

“The mix of players includes a lot of players who have a lot of experience at all the games,” said Bloch. “There were some big bet specialists early on, maybe down to two tables, but they ended up busting out. Right now, it’s a tough table.”

Day four began with 26 players, with ten of them being sent home without making the money including Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Monnette and Joe Cassidy. Ben Yu was the bubble boy, ensuring that the remaining 16 players all at least cashed for $91,549.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom began the day as the chipleader after hitting a one-outer at the end of day 3 in a massive pot-limit Omaha pot against Joe Cassidy. Blom was chipped down throughout the day, and eventually hit the rail in 14th place for $105,235.

High stakes mixed-game pro and 2010 third-place finisher in this event David Oppenheim bubbled the final table, finishing ninth for $142,197.

Here is a look at the chip counts heading into the final table:

Rank Player Chip Counts
1 Michael Mizrachi 3,648,000
2 Andy Bloch 3,598,000
3 Chris Klodnicki 3,276,000
4 Stephen Chidwick 2,026,000
5 Luke Schwartz 1,494,000
6 Bill Chen 1,293,000
7 Roland Israelashvili 694,000
8 Bruno Fitoussi 188,000
 
 
Tags: Poker Tournaments,   WSOP,   World Series of Poker,   $50k,   eight-game,   Poker Players Championship,   final table,   Michael Mizrachi,   The Grinder,   Andy Bloch,   Chris Klodnicki,   Stephen Chidwick,   Luke Schwartz,   Bill Chen,   Roland Israelashvili,   Bruno Fitoussi
 
 
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