Monday, December 17, 2007

Poker Players: Michael Mizrachi - The Grinder

We continue our poker success stories, the next is story of Michael Mizrachi, one of the most successful today poker players.


Michael Mizrachi (a.k.a. The Grinder) was born on January 5th, 1981 along with his fraternal twin Eric. He has two other brothers, Robert (the oldest) and Daniel (the youngest). They grew up in North Miami Beach, and then moved to Hollywood, Florida.

"The Grinder" started playing online poker after his brother Robert was successful at it. Michael said he did what all brothers do; he looked up to his big brother and decided to follow suit. He started playing $5-10 Limit Holdem on Paradise Poker and moved along to the $30-60 and $100-200 at PokerStars. He has not looked back since.

The first time I played with "The Grinder" was in 2004 at the Hustler Grand Slam Tournament. We played in the No Limit Holdem Shootout event and both of us made it the final table. Right before I sat down at the table, a friend of mine pulled me aside and told me to watch out for Mike. He said he was a really solid player and I was better off targeting some of the other opponents. I didn't have to "avoid" playing with Michael for too long because he got knocked out in eighth place. After the event, it seemed like I saw "The Grinder" all the time. I didn't see him in person, but I always saw him playing in online tournaments with me. He really made a name for himself in the online poker community because he seemed to make it into the money a lot.

It wasn't long before he started to make a name for himself all over the poker industry (not just online). In 2005, he made it to the final table in back-to-back World Poker Tour events. At the 2005 World Poker Open, Michael finished in fifth place and a month later he won the 2005 LA Poker Classic. His online play has contributed to his success because he learned how to play against a wide variety of players. He said, "playing online helped me learn how to play against passive and aggressive players. I adjust to many styles of play, so it makes it harder to play against me." I asked Mike what the major difference between playing online tournaments and playing WPT events was and he responded: "Online you get dealt 4 times more hands than live." He said the WPT tournaments have a tougher level of opponents with a lot more skill. It appears he has been able to make all the adjustments necessary.

The Grinder has other World Poker Tour accomplishments besides the back to back events mentioned above. He finished 11th in the $25,000 Championship event, 2nd at the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica and 1st at the Borgata Winter Open.

Michael resides in Florida with his wife Aidiliy (his best railbird), his son Paul William Mizrachi, and his daughter Julie Malka. Although he resides in Florida, he spends a lot of his time traveling the tournament circuit. For awhile he traveled in "style" thanks to his win at the World Poker Tour event at the Commerce Casino. He bought a new tour bus, which he used to keep his family by his side, but has since sold the toy. Mike has worked with Absolute Poker.

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