Michael Mizrachi

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (born January 5, 1981 in Miami, Florida) is an American professional poker player.

Growing up, Mizrachi wanted to become a doctor but dropped out of college to play poker full-time.

In January 2005, Mizrachi finished 5th in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Poker Open at a table also featuring Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen. The next month he won a first prize of $1,859,909 on the WPT, defeating a final table including Ted Forrest and Erick Lindgren. He finished the year’s WPT with an 11th place finish (out of 452 entrants) in the $25,000 WPT Championship.

In the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP), he tied a record by having 7 money finishes.

In the WPT’s fourth season he finished 2nd to Scotty Nguyen in the Gold Strike World Poker Open. In the next event, he defeated a final table including John D’Agostino and Erick Lindgren to win $1,173,373 and a 2006 Cadillac Escalade in his second WPT win.

Mizrachi was one of the players at the table during season 2 of High Stakes Poker.

In 2006 Mizrachi won CardPlayer Magazine’s Player of the Year Award.

As of 2007, Mizrachi’s live tournament winnings exceed $5,800,000.

 Personal life

Michael is the younger brother of Robert Mizrachi who has numerous WSOP and WPT finishes to his own name. He has a twin brother Eric Mizrachi (also a poker player) and a younger brother, Daniel, who is a professional magician.

Mizrachi is married to Aidilay, has one son, Paul William (named after his grandfather) and a daughter named Julie Malka (”queen” in Hebrew). He currently lives in Hollywood, Florida. He purchased a used tour bus from Michael Jenkins Inc. leasing out of his poker winnings which he used to keep his family near him when he is on the road, but eventually sold it as it was depreciating in value.

Mizrachi is fluent in Hebrew; as his father is of Iraqi Jewish origin.