Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi Wins Second WSOP $50,000 Players Championship Title

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi has won the World Series of Poker $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship eight-game mix for the second time. The event has been around for just seven years. Mizrachi defeated Chris Klodnicki heads-up to become the first player ever to win this prestigious title twice.

“Its just an unbelievable feeling to be a two-time winner of the Poker Players Championship. It’s the toughest field you can ever play in,” Mizrachi told Card Player just after his victory. “Every player knows how to play the games. It’s a $50,000 buy-in, and one of the biggest events of the Series.”

For this historic win Mizrachi had his name engraved once again on the David “Chip” Reese Memorial Trophy, and was also awarded his third WSOP gold bracelet. He scooped the $1,451,527 first-place prize and 1,020 Card Player Player of the Year points, moving him into 10th place in the overall POY standings.

“It’s an honor to have the Chip Reese Trophy twice. He was an awesome guy, and I’m just proud to have the trophy for another year,” Mizrachi. said.

The final table of Event No. 45 went surprisingly quickly, with a total running time of just over five hours including the breaks. The speed that the final table played out belies the remarkable congregation of poker talent that was present.

Mizrachi had to overcome Klodnicki (2nd — $896,935), former runner-up in this event and gold bracelet winner Andy Bloch (3rd — $561,738), high-stakes cash game specialist Luke “FullFlush1” Schwartz (4th — $406,736), WSOP Circuit ring winner Roland Israelashivili (5th — $317,882), 23-year-old tournament prodigy Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick (6th — $253,497), two-time bracelet winner Bill Chen (7th — $205,856) and former $50K final tablist Bruno Fitoussi (8th — $169,879).

As a result of capturing his 21st career title, Mizrachi overtook Phil Hellmuth to take over the fourth spot on the all-time live tournament earnings list with $13,883,621. With only Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel and Daniel Negreanu ahead of him, it is clear that Mizrachi is truly one of the greatest tournament players in the history of the game.

“My next goal is to win the [One Drop] million [dollar buy-in], and also to improve on that fifth-place [main event] finish,” the 31-year-old said. “I am trying to break the record I had in 2010, but I don’t know if I can. This was my third final table [this year], so it’s been a great Series so far, and there is still a long way to go.”

Here is a look at the complete payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Check out Card Player TV’s video with Mizrachi just after his win:

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