Last year, Phil Ivey ran his AK into Darvin Moon’s AQ which promptly flopped an Ace to put him out of the tournament. The Grinder is this year’s Phil Ivey and it is likely the Grinder will also only get eliminated after getting it in with the best of it. If Mizrachi does pull off the unlikely, and win the Texas Holdem poker event, he’ll double his just short of 9 million career earnings and leap to first place in live tournament winnings with just under 18 million for his career.
Phil Ivey used multiple prop bets to motivate him to win the event and some observers say he actually came off as passive and tight. It was clear he had only one goal in mind winning the tournament. While it’s clear the Grinder wants to win too, he realizes just making the final table is a huge accomplishment and he’s going to make the best of it. He told Cardplayer that he likes his chances, “Ive been in every situation poossible, in tournaments and I think, I’m more dangerous with a short stack than a big stack.” This may be the world’s most lucrative Sit and go poker tournament but it is still a poker tournament.
Again the parallels to Ivey’s run last year are apparent. Ivey also came in with an under average chip stack and despite his ballyhooed prowess couldn’t overcome the deficit. The Grinder is a very similar seventh in chips, and because of the extended final bubble play it requred to knock out 10th place Brandon Steven the blinds will be nipping at his heels. His short stack “ninja” skills will be tested in the grandest stage possible.
To put the just under 9 million dollar to first place number in perspective, the Grinder’s 8.9 million in earnings is already one of the highest in poker and he’d be doubling that. Phil Ivey is the current leader with 13.4 million and Daniel Negreanu is second with 12.6 million. The Grinder’s epic World Series would go down as maybe the greatest summer of all time at the Rio for any professional poker player ever. He would be tied for Player of the Year, he’d win the main event (something no previous Player of the Year has done), he’d have two bracelets (bookending them in the two biggest events of the Series) and have four final tables.
The other two final tables? They weren’t events to sneeze at either. One was the 10k Seven Card Stud World Championship and the other the 10k Limit Hold’em World Championship. What a range of disciplines for the Grinder to conquer. Even more impressive is the fact that Mizrachi has made many of these deep runs with his brothers having almost as much success. While it’s in dispute if this has been the year of the Grinder, if he goes out first, there is no doubting it’s been the summer of the Mizrachis.
The four Mizrachi brothers all went deep in the Main Event, and Michael shared the 50k Players Championship final table with his brother. His financial misfortune he unfortunately also shared with his family. His brother Robert jointly owned one of two Grinder condos that were facing foreclosure. The Grinder also had a 339k tax lien from the federal government for back taxes.
His totals at the World Series so far? 1.559 million for the Poker Playe’s Championship. Just under 69k for 6th place in the seven Card Stud World Championship. Just under 50k for eight place in the Limit Hold’em World Championship. He had one other cash a 29th place in the Mixed Event 348 for 6k. With 1.68 million and possibly 9 million more to come he could have a 10 million dollar summer. Even if he’s backed and only gets half of that, the Grinder is looking at 5 million to the good. That should keep the tax men away and probably pay off the condos.