Michael Mizrachi

The face and the name that every poker professional and avid poker fan alike will certainly recognize, any time of day or night, is that of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. Coming from Florida, born in January of 1981, he achieved the success on the live tournament circuit that will remain but a dream for many fellow players. He started with the game when he was fifteen, under the influence of his elder brother Robert, and has been attracted to the game from the very first moment he played it. It was Robert who made the greatest influence on him during the earliest days of his career, and he has always received the full support from his family in his endeavors as everyone in the family simply loves playing cards. He developed his skill online until he finally started crushing live tournaments, and it was during these early days that he got his nickname “The Grinder”, because of his calm, methodical and solid playing style, slowly grinding his way up. Michael Mizrachi started studying medicine, but it wasn’t long before he decided to drop out of college to be able to engage the poker full time. This decision turned out to be one of the best he made in his life, as the scores just kept coming. When talking about his results, it is really hard to name just a few, but we’ll give it a shot. His first six figures score came in the end of 2004, after winning the Five Diamond Poker Classic in Las Vegas for $273,000. Not long after, in February of 2005, he made the second biggest score of his career to date: 1st place in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, walking away with the title and more than $1.8 million prize money. Following year saw him seizing the day in the WPT Borgata event for nearly $1.2 million, on the heels of his 2nd place finish in the WPT Tunica for which he took home $566,000. His first bracelet came in the 2010, when he won the $50k 8 Game Championship for over $1.5 million. This was truly the year of the grinder, as soon after he managed to final table the WSOP Main Event and come close to the most coveted piece of jewelry – the Main Event bracelet. Unfortunately, he fell short of that goal, as he finished in 5th place, but it was still good enough for the biggest cash of his career in the amount of $2.3 million and change. Then, in 2012, he took down another WSOP bracelet in the $50k Championship Event, not long after taking one in the WSOP Europe event. And the list goes on and on. It would really be a daunting task to list all the achievements of this truly outstanding player. Currently placed 8th on the All Time Money List, Micheal Mizrachi has accumulated more than $14.5 million in tournament winnings, with three WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles to his name. He is a married man, with two children, a son and a daughter, and spends most of his time on the tournament circuit, where he just cannot stop winning. There are numerous videos and interviews featuring The Grinder here on Pokertube and most of them are really enjoyable to watch.