The World Poker Tour season paused during the World Series of Poker, but it did not wait a single minute to get started again. On Sunday, Robert Mizrachi won the WPT Venetian Las Vegas Main Event, the first WPT title of his already-successful live tournament career.
The $5,000 buy-in event drew 1,178 entrants, pumping the prize pool to $5,418,800. Mizrachi’s share was a healthy $894,100. His lifetime live tournament earnings are now $8,821,611.
Mizrachi already had four World Series of Poker bracelets to his name, so he was no stranger to final tables. Fortunately, that poker monkey is now off of his back and his name will be alongside his brother, Michael’s, on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
Going into Day 4, Mizrachi was second in chips of the seven remaining players with 12.350 million, well behind Leon Sturm, who had 19.650 million. Nobody else had more than 9.500 million chips.
Arian Stolt was the first to be eliminated on Sunday, likely a huge disappointment, as he had 37 big blinds to start the day, while two other players had similar stacks and Raul Manzanares had just nine big blinds. Everyone wants to win, so you have to seize the opportunity to build a stack, but not outlasting the tiny stack probably hurt. Stolt’s ouster setup the official six-handed final table.
Javier Zarco couldn’t outlast Manzanares, either, doubling him up to fall to just six big blinds, then bowing out in sixth place a short time later.
On Hand 45 of the final table, Mizrachi won a massive pot from Sturm to take over the chip lead. It was the turn that did it, as Mizrachi turned a flush, while Sturm hit trips.
And then, finally, Manzanares hit the rail in fifth place, done in by Mizrachi having milked his short stack as much as he good.
It took a long, long time for the next player to be knocked out, as the chip lead changed hands multiple times and players saw their fortunes rise and fall. Mizrachi crippled Sturm on Hand 111 and eliminated him on the next hand to take a commanding chip lead. After knocking out Yulian Bogdanov on Hand 130 of the final table, Robert Mizrachi went into heads-up play against Mike Vanier with more than a 3-to-1 chip lead, 44.900 million to 14.200 million.
It took just six hands for Mizrachi to seal the deal and win his first WPT title. Vanier raised to $800,000 pre-flop, Mizrachi moved all-in, and Vanier called all-in for 9.900 million. Mizrachi had A-7 and Vanier had K-T, both offsuit. Mizrachi flopped two pair and Vanier needed a miraculous runner-runner, which he didn’t get.
2022 World Poker Tour Venetian Las Vegas Main Event – Final Table Results
- Robert Mizrachi – $894,100
- Mike Vanier – $595,000
- Yulian Bogdanov – $440,000
- Leon Sturm – $327,000
- Raul Manzanares – $247,000
- Javier Zarco – $188,000
