Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi Leads The Way Into Final Table
Day of Event 45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship here at the 2012 World Series of Poker has wrapped up. It was an extremely exciting day of play, which was capped off by the setting of the official final table.
The day began with Viktor Blom leading the remaining 26 players. Of those 26, 16 would finish in the money while 10 would go home empty handed.
Finishing outside of the money were Antony Lellouche, Phil Hellmuth, Michael Glick, David Chiu, Lyle Berman, Robert Mizrachi, Joe Cassidy, Phil Ivey and John Monnette. With those eliminations, the field was down to 17 players and on the official money bubble.
On the bubble, Ben Yu was knocked down to just 3,000 in chips after a confrontation in Limit Hold'em against Daniel Alaei. Yu was able to fight back in a couple of pots to stay alive and get back to 21,000, but that's where the comeback ended.
On his final hand, Yu made two pair of eights and threes along with an eight-four low in Stud-8. His opponent, Roland Israelashvili, made a seven-high straight along with a six-five low to scoop the entire pot and send Yu out the door.
From there, 16 players remained and eight of them needed to be bounced before reaching the official final table. Brett Richey fought long and hard as the "comeback kid," but finished in 16th place. MIke Wattel (15th), Viktor Blom (14th), Jeff Lisandro (13th), John Hennigan (12th), Daniel Alaei (11th) and David "ODB" Baker (10th) were the next to go before the final nine joined at one table with the goal of losing one more.
David Oppenheim got short at the "unofficial" final table, before doubling up through Chris Klodnicki. Oppenheim only got short again and then eventually busted to Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. He was the last person eliminated on the night, going out in ninth place for $142,197.
Mizrachi finished on the top of the leader board, but only barely. He edged out Andy Bloch by a mere 50,000 in chips.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Chen | 1,293,000 |
| 2 | Luke Schwartz | 1,494,000 |
| 3 | Andy Bloch | 3,598,000 |
| 4 | Stephen Chidwick | 2,026,000 |
| 5 | Michael Mizrachi | 3,648,000 |
| 6 | Chris Klodnicki | 3,276,000 |
| 7 | Bruno Fitoussi | 188,000 |
| 8 | Roland Israelashvili | 694,000 |
Mizrachi will head the final table for Day 5. When he won this very event back in 2010 for his first WSOP gold bracelet, Mizrachi came into the final table fifth in chips. He'll be in better position this time around and seems to be playing his best poker. He's also running well, and anyone who knows poker knows that it a very lethal combination.
The final table will commence on Thursday at 2:00 PM and PokerNews will be on hand for all of the coverage. Be sure to stay tuned in then for all of the action, it's going to be a great show. Until then, enjoy the rest of our coverage from the 2012 WSOP.