The Grinder Grinds Back from the Brink

It has truly been a roller coaster ride for Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. Mizrachi had been toiling in relative obscurity before he exploded onto the world stage in 2005 with a record breaking World Series of Poker. Since that time, things have gone from good to better to big problems and back to success in what is sure to be one of the bumpiest rides for any poker professional.

Just months ago, Mizrachi had received a lien for $339,711 from the IRS for unpaid taxes. Additionally, a condo in Hollywood owned by Mizrachi and his brother was foreclosed on and sold at an auction. Another home of his located in Miramar was also foreclosed on. With total career winnings of almost $7 million dollars, many might wonder how he managed to get himself into such dire straits.

After his WPT win in 2005 worth $1.85 million and his record of seven in the money finishes at the world series of poker, Mizrachi was running hot. Following his successful 2005, Mizrachi won another WPT tournament in 2006 and took home a cool $1.1 million and was successful enough that he was named CardPlayer Magazine’s 2006 player of the year. Following his immense success in 2005 and 2006, the next few years were relatively slow with The Grinder only pulling in $325,000 in tournaments in 2009.

Through the first half of 2010, things were looking even grimmer for The Grinder with a paltry $7,465 through May in winnings, the tax lien, and the foreclosures on his properties. With all of the problems that have been facing Mizrachi, many people were writing him off.
As is the case with poker, all it takes is a little bit of good fortune to turn everything around and Mizrachi’s turnaround over the past few months has been absolutely spectacular. Less than a month after he was losing both of his homes, Mizrachi came roaring back to the top with an amazing victory in the Player’s Championship and walked home with $1.5 million. Of course, the grinder was not satisfied with winning his first bracelet.

Earlier this month, Mizrachi managed to navigate an extremely large and skilled field for the WSOP Main Event to make it to the final table. He made his way into the November nine by surviving an arduous 18 hour poker marathon that did not end until 6 in the morning with just the nine players standing. Mizrachi goes into the final table in 7th place with a chip stack of about 14.5 million. With the chip leader, Jonathan Duhamel, sitting on 66 million in chips, Mizrachi has a long way to go to make it to the top spot. Of course, as he has shown in the past, you can never count The Grinder out.

For a professional poker player, one flip of the cards can make a world of difference and in less than two months, Michael Mizrachi has gone from down and out to riding high with his sights set on taking home the crown jewel of poker this November. And, of course, over $8.9 million.

Posted by Joel on Jul 27 2010. Filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry