Michael Mizrachi Wins His Fifth WSOP Gold Bracelet

Michael Mizrachi defeated a field of 460 players to emerge victorious in the 2019 World Series of Poker $1,500 seven-card stud eight-or-better event. For the win, the 38-year-old poker pro known to many as ‘The Grinder’ earned his fifth gold bracelet and the top prize of $142,801. Each of his victories in WSOP events has come since 2010. No other player has won as many bracelets this decade.

Mizrachi has also taken the lead in another WSOP title category as a result of this win. Michael broke the tie with his brother Robert Mizrachi, who has four bracelets to his hame, to become the leading title winner from the family.

“It was a tough table, but I think the experience helped me out a little bit. I have a lot of tournament experience," said Mizrachi after coming out on top. "I feel I had a pretty good edge on the other players in certain spots where they probably wouldn’t play hands. But I played those hands and I know they were going to fold.”

Mizrachi entered the final day of this event as the chip leader with six players remaining. He didn’t score any of the first three knockouts at the final table, though. Michael Sopko sent Jose Paz-Gutierrez to the rail in sixth place ($21,575), while Robert Gray busted both Jan Stein (5th – $29,818) and Elias Hourani (4th – $42,014) to take the lead into three-handed play.

Three-handed play saw several lead changes, but eventually, Mizrachi was able to regain the ascendancy. Mizrachi scooped Michael Sopko with queens up to eliminate him in third place ($60,330). Sopko had a low draw and a pair of jacks going into seventh street, but hit a useless 9 on the end to see his run come to an end.

Mizrachi held roughly a 3-to-2 chip lead over Robert Gray when heads-up play began. Gray was able to battle his way to the top of the counts for a moment, but Mizrachi regained the lead in short order and never looked back from there.

Gray’s last chips went into the middle on fourth street with a piar of kings up against a pair of nines and three diamonds for Mizrachi. The full boards for both players looked as follows:

Gray: (AK) 6K104(J)

Mizrachi (93) 8923(10)

Mizrachi made two pair on sixth street to take the lead. Gray failed to improve any further and was knocked out in second place, earning $88,254 for his impressive run.

With that, Mizrachi secured the title and 720 Card Player Player of the Year points. Mizrachi won the Player of the Year award back in 2006. This was his first POY-qualified score of this year, though. The win was enough to see him move inside the top 350 in the 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

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

For more coverage from the summer series, check out the 2019 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, results, news, player interviews, and event recaps.

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