Michael Mizrachi REALLY likes the $50,000 Poker Players Championship at the World Series of Poker. Mizrachi, who has won the event – one of the most prestigious at the WSOP – twice, is the chip leader after Day 3 of this year’s tournament with just twelve players remaining.
Mizrachi was the chip leader going into the day with 1.274 million chips and stayed around that level for the first four hours or so. His charge through the rest of the day began in earnest when he eliminated Justin Bonomo in 30th place. Bonomo raised to 24,000 pre-flop and Mizrachi probably figured for that price, it was worth taking a shot with 5-3 of diamonds. Sure enough, the flop was Jack-high, all diamonds. Bonomo bet 25,000 and Mizrachi called. An 8 on the turn led to a 75,000 bet from Bonomo, which Mizrachi called again. Bonomo bet 130,000 when another 8 was dealt on the river, but this time, Mizrachi raised to 475,000, just covering Bonomo. Bonomo called all-in and when Mizrachi showed his flush, Bonomo turned over two red Queens before taking his leave of the tournament.
From there, Mizrachi just kept climbing. He had another sweet flop in a later No-Limit Hold’em level after having already built his stack to well over 3 million chips. John Hennigan had bet 25,000 pre-flop and both Mizrachi and Aaron Katz called. The flop was T-4-T and the turn was a 9 and what do you know…Mizrachi had T-9. He extracted a few more chips from his opponents before getting them all to fold, growing his stack to 3.755 million.
As mentioned, Mizrachi has won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship twice, in 2010 and 2012. He also has a third bracelet, won in the €10,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2011 WSOP Europe. All told “The Grinder” has $15 million in live tournament earnings.
Monday should be a relatively short day, as the last day of the tournament isn’t until tomorrow. This means that play will likely stop at the final table today and with just a dozen players remaining, only a few eliminations will be needed before calling it quits.
And though everyone remaining has reached the money, with the caliber of player in this tournament, it is unlikely anyone will be willing to just give up. As one would expect in a $50,000 mixed game event, the field is full of big names. After Mizrachi, there are the likes of Mike Leah, Phil Ivey, John Hennigan, Brian Rast, Greg Mueller, and Shaun Deeb still playing. Jean-Robert Bellande is the short stack with 213,000 million chips.
Not making it to Day 4 but still cashing were Randy Ohel and Yehuda Buchalter.
2018 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players Championship – Day 3 Chip Counts
1. Michael Mizrachi – 4,232,000
2. Mike Leah – 3,134,000
3. Aaron Katz – 2,480,000
4. Phil Ivey – 2,146,000
5. Benny Glaser – 1,967,000
6. Dan Smith – 1,816,000
7. John Hennigan – 1,458,000
8. Greg Mueller – 1,439,000
9. Brian Rast – 1,167,000
10. Chris Vitch – 1,160,000
11. Shaun Deeb – 533,000
12. Jean-Robert Bellande – 213,000
