Michael Mizrachi | Poker From The Rail

2010 World Series of Poker Day 6: The Grinder Wins His First

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

As Day 6 gets underway we look forward to first two open event bracelet ceremonies after a marathon day of poker. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi came from behind heads up to win his first WSOP bracelet in the $50,000 Player’s Championship and Michael Chow outlasted journeyman Dan Heimiller to capture the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 title. Only one new event kicks off today but two more bracelets will be awarded on the final day of the $1,000 and $1,500 NLHE. We will also have Day 2 restarts of the $5,000 NLHE Shootout and the always fun Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Limit event.

The big news of the night came from the main ESPN stage where 8 players battled it out for the $50,000 Player’s Championship bracelet, Chip Reese trophy, and a big bag of money. David Oppenheim began the day on the smallest of stacks but made a huge run right from the start, eventually moving into second place with 5 players remaining. He took a commanding lead when he went heads up with chip leader Michael Mirachi in a huge pot when his 4′s flopped a set versus The Grinder’s top pair top kicker. The brother’s Mizrachi eventually went up against each other with Michael getting the best of Robert, knocking him out in 5th place. John Juanda took control of the middle part of the tournament but was unable to finish higher than 4th missing out on his 5th WSOP title. In the end it was Michael Mizrachi who was the last player standing when he defeated Russian Vladimir Schemelev for his first WSOP bracelet and $1,500,000.

We here at Poker From the Rail would like to take .00001% credit for his win since we just posted yesterday about Mizrachi being one of the top players without a bracelet.

$50,000 Player’s Championship final table results:

1st – Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – $1,559,046
2nd – Vladimir Schmelev – $963,375
3rd – David Oppenheim – $603,348
4th – John Juanda – $436,865
5th – Robert Mizrachi – $341,429
6th – David Baker – $272,275
7th – Daniel Alaei – $221,105
8th – Mikael Thuritz – $182,463

There are some great names returning for Day 2 of the $5,000 Shootout and others who came up just short. Phil Ivey was one of those who played out the entire table only to find himself with an unfortunate second place “bubble”. 36 players return to play 4 shootout tables and the remaining field contains Tom “durrrr” Dwan, James Akenhead, Max Pescatori, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith, Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks, Blair Hinkle, John Duthie, and Chris Bell (just to name a few). We’re still a little fuzzy on the math for the shootout but will track down the details. Will they play a 4-handed final table?

Update: The $5,000 Shootout started with six 6-handed tables making for a 6-handed final table.

This year’s Limit Deuce to Seven Triple Draw event drew a bigger crowd than 2009 with 291 players. 87 return today and attempt to work their way to the final 6-handed table. Salim Hanna begins the day with the chip lead with Hoyt Corkins right on his tail. Some of the top chip counts belong to Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, Tom “Donkeybomber” Schneider, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro. 30 spots are paid with the restart kicking off at 15:00PT.

$2,500 Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw (Limit) top 10:

1 – Salim Hanna – 65,400
2 – Hoyt Corkins – 63,400
3 – Davidson Matthew – 56,400
4 – Brian Tate – 56,200
5 – Jameson Painter – 55,200
6 – Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler – 52,900
7 – Jaime Kaplan – 51,800
8 – Jeffrey Lisandro – 49,500
9 – Greg “FBT” Mueller – 46,500
10 – Jordan Siegel – 46,300

Today’s new event is not your standard $1,500 NLHE tournament as our newest Full Tilt pro Annette Obrestad has landed and this will be her first Vegas WSOP tournament. We will try to track her progress throughout the tournament to see how it goes.

Update: Obrestad has been knocked out before I could even hit the publish button. They got all the chips in the middle with Obrestad ahead with a set versus kings up. Her opponent binked the suckout on the river.

Day 5 pictures after the jump:

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Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Michael Mizrachi, WSOP

2010 World Series of Poker: Best Players Without WSOP Title

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

It’s one of the standard conversations which always come up during the World Series of Poker. Who’s the best player to not have captured their first bracelet? Mr. McCarthy and myself were just sitting on media row yesterday bouncing names back and forth with the usual suspect always in the mix, Team Full Tilt member Andy Bloch. He is one of the most successful tournament players in the world but has yet to find himself as the last player standing at the end of a WSOP event. His efforts include two high profile second place finishes where he was the favorite going into heads up play.

Regular guest blogger “Tuscaloosa” Johnny sent along his thoughts on ten high-profile players coming into the summer still aiming for their first title. Interesting that he lists Michael Mizrachi in his post as “The Grinder” will sit at the $50,000 Player’s Championshp final table later today.

Best players without a WSOP bracelet
By “Tuscaloosa” Johnny Kampis

Erick Lindgren, Kenny Tran, Nenad Medic, Dario Minieri, John Phan. Know what all of these players have in common? They all won their first World Series of Poker bracelets in recent years. These players were lucky enough to achieve their first victories in the Rio, but there are plenty of deserving pros who haven’t tasted WSOP glory yet. Here are ten pros that are due:

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Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Andy Bloch, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Guest Posts, Gus Hansen, Michael Mizrachi, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Tuscaloosa Johnny, WSOP