– General Information –
Michael Mizrachi is an American professional poker player. He was born on January 5th, 1981.
He has won 4 WSOP gold bracelets. Perhaps what he’s best known for is winning the $50,000 Poker Players Championship event 3 times – it’s a high stakes mixed game event with star-studded fields, one of the most prestigious staples on the WSOP’s schedule each year. In addition, he’s also won a WSOP Europe event in 2011.
In 2010, he made the final table in the World Series of Poker Main Event.
Mizrachi is also known as the screen name he used for online poker, “The Grinder”.
– Key Career Dates –
- 1999: As soon as he turns 18, he starts playing limit poker cash games on a cruise ship.
- 2010: He wins his first WSOP gold bracelet. He tops the field in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $1.559 million.
- 2010: He finishes 5th in the WSOP Main Event for $2.333 million. That is his biggest single tournament cash to date.
- 2018: He wins the WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship for an unprecedented 3rd time.
– Michael Mizrachi’s Career –
→ Beginnings ←
Poker Central produced a 22-minute long biographical video on Mizrachi’s life.
In it, we find out that he was born into a gambling family. Both his parents were avid casino goers and they often took their 4 sons with them.
According to the Mizrachi brothers, Michael first played live poker outside the family at a cruise ship in Port Everglades in Fault Lauderdale, FL. He was a big winner at the table from the get-go, playing mostly limit cash games at the time.
After that, Mizrachi went to community college and even worked as a dealer for a while. He eventually decided to drop out of college and go pro in 2004 – the year his first child was born.
→ Live Tournaments ←
Michael Mizrachi’s Hendon page shows an impressive $17.2 million in live cashes. He’s in the top 50 on the site’s famous All Time Money List, currently standing at 35th place.
He has cashed in 198 different tournaments over the span of 15 years.
His first recorded cash is from March 2004. He came in 6th in a $500 event at the New England Poker Classic in Mashantucket, CT for $6,488. Two months later he won a $500 tournament at the Bellagio for $21,729.
The first time he made a 6-figure cash was at the end of 2004, in the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. Mizrachi won a $2,000 Hold’em World Poker Tour event for no less than $273,040. He described that as a life changing moment in his video biography.
It was definitely the start of an insane heater. In the next two years, he cashed for over $5 million combined.
Mizrachi won the $10K LA Poker Classic Main Event for $1.860 million in 2005. The next year, he finished second in a $10K Gold Strike World Poker Open event for $566,352 and won a $10K WPT championship at the Borgata Winter Open for $1.173 million. That is just a small sample of the success Mizrachi was having at the time.
There was a short period of downswing between 2009 and 2011, but Mizrachi managed to come back, and he came back strong.
He won the €10,000 Mixed No Limit Hold’em event at the 2011 WSOP Europe in Cannes. Also, he came in 3rd in the $25K WPT World Championship event for $424,618 in 2012.
→ World Series Of Poker ←
Michael Mizrachi has won 4 WSOP bracelets during his career.
What’s even more impressive is that 3 (!) of those were won in the $50K Poker Players Championship. This event is often cited as the second most prestigious one right below the Main Event. It’s a mixed game tournament with usually poker’s biggest stars buying in and vying for the coveted title.
The first time Mizrachi claimed this title was in 2010 – he earned $1,559,046 for that. At the final table, he had to battle with his own brother, Robert Mizrachi – Michael even knocked him out of the tournament.
During the same World Series, he also final tabled the Main Event, eventually taking 5th place for $2,332,992. That is his biggest single tournament score to date.
Mizrachi was able to win the $50K PPC for the second time in 2012 for $1,451,527; and once again in 2018, that time pocketing $1,239,126. Needless to say, he’s the only player in poker history to win the WSOP Poker Players Championship 3 times…
Thank you @XSlasvegas for a great time last night with @TheChainsmokers to celebrate my @WSOP win! #TeamMizrachi | #WynnNightLife pic.twitter.com/Mzb5aHsZ8q
— Michael Mizrachi (@TheGrinder44) June 23, 2018
His fourth and as of now last bracelet came in 2019. He finished first in the $1,500 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or-Better event for $142,801.
Overall, Michael Mizrachi has cashed in a total of 64 World Series events throughout his career, for a combined $8.395 million.
On top of his 3 bracelets in the $50K Poker Players Championship, he also has a final table finish in that event. In 2016, he came in 4th place, pocketing $390,942 that time. He came very close to another bracelet in the $2,500 Omaha/7-Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or-Better event in 2011. He finished runner-up for $158,148, eventually losing the heads-up battle for the title to Owais Ahmed.
→ Live Cash Games ←
Both in online and live poker, Mizrachi has always put more volume into tournaments than cash games.
In February 2016, it was one of the rare occasions when he took part in a live streamed cash game. He was playing $5/$10 No Limit Hold’em at Live at the Bike’s.
→ Online Poker ←
Mizrachi originally started off in online poker on ParadisePoker with his “Michael34” account, mostly playing $5/$10 Limit Hold’em cash games. He took on the alias “The Grinder”, which stuck with him even at the live felt, when he switched to Full Tilt. He also used it on PokerStars.
Despite starting off as a cash player, there’s very few tracked hands on him. The online high stakes cash game database has a little more than 4,000 from his Full Tilt account. He’s around $38,000 in the red in that sample, playing mostly PLO.
As for online tournaments, “The Grinder” doesn’t have a PocketFives account. However, in February 2005 they ran a profile piece on him in which they mentioned some of his biggest online tourney results.
The article says:
“He informed me in our phone conversation that his biggest win online was about $30,000, which he’d done a few times. Later that day, he won the $500k Guaranteed $500+30 buy-in on PokerStars, and after the money was divvied up based on a 5-way chop the players had agreed on, The Grinder received a hefty sum of $89,020. Are you convinced yet? I know I am…”
I’m trying coinpoker for the first time . https://t.co/qNS9zVUQSy pic.twitter.com/AX5Tb0JBmg
— Michael Mizrachi (@TheGrinder44) August 29, 2018
→ Scandals ←
Going bust in the Florida real estate market
In his biographical video linked above, Mizrachi and his friends talked about how despite being a phenomenal poker player, he often burnt through huge sums of money at other casino games.
However, his biggest losses didn’t come from any casino game – it was his real estate investments in Florida.
According to Mizrachi himself, he invested around $1 million in 7 Florida homes. By 2009, the market crashed and Mizrachi lost almost all of his capital. This resulted in him having serious financial troubles, such as owing over $300,000 to the IRS.
However, he managed to climb out of his hole in style – by winning the $50K WSOP Poker Players Championship for $1.559 million in 2010.
– Michael Mizrachi on Social Media –
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegrinder44 81,400 followers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegrinder44/ 11,600 followers
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