Mizrachi his own man
Poker pro matches celebrated brother with third bracelet
Robert Mizrachi’s poker resume would make most players envious.
But no matter how many World Series of Poker bracelets he collects and how much money he wins, Mizrachi can’t seem to escape his younger brother Michael’s shadow.
“They always call me ‘Grinder’s’ brother,” he said.
Mizrachi is hoping that will change after his most recent accomplishment. The 36-year-old Las Vegas resident won the $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low 8-or-Better tournament this week and matched his more famous brother with his third career WSOP bracelet.
“I didn’t even think about tying him the whole time. It was more about winning and making myself happy and achieving a big goal for myself as a poker player,” Mizrachi said. “Maybe now people see me with three bracelets, so it’s hard for them to continue to call me Mike’s brother instead of calling me by my first name.”
Robert is the oldest of the four Mizrachi brothers, who all learned poker from their mother, Susan Laufer Mizrachi, and used to play for baseball cards
Massive comeback heads-up
as kids growing up in south Florida.
After working as dealers — the family owns a dealer school in Florida — the brothers got into tournament poker more than 10 years ago and quickly became one of the game’s best-known families.
In 2010, Robert and Michael reached the final table of the WSOP’s $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship that Michael won. That same year, Robert, Michael, his twin brother, Eric, and youngest brother Danny all cashed in the Main Event.
But Michael Mizrachi has received most of the media attention over the years thanks to his catchy nickname (“The Grinder”) and status as one of poker’s winningest players of all time with almost $15 million in live tournament earnings, according to Global Poker Index.
“He definitely earned a big name for himself,” Robert Mizrachi said. “It’s really hard to compete with his achievements.”
Robert Mizrachi, who specializes in the mixed games that are rarely shown on TV, brought his career live earnings to more than $5.4 million with his latest victory. Mizrachi faced a 12-to-1 chip disadvantage at one point during headsup play early Sunday against Jacob Dahl of Portland, Ore., but he rallied after the tournament resumed that afternoon to take down the $251,022 firstplace prize.
“It was a big break for me when they called it a night on Day 3,” said Mizrachi, who was battling the flu. “That’s like being down four touchdowns and coming back and winning, which is pretty much unheard of. You’ve got to really play good and run good and stay focused from there and never give up.”
Mizrachi’s first WSOP bracelet came in pot-limit Omaha in 2007, and last year he won the first-ever $1,500 buy-in Dealer’s Choice Six-Handed event, which helped cement his reputation as one of the top mixed-game players.
“That was big for me, winning that bracelet, because it has every game in the mix,” Mizrachi said. “And it’s not about picking your best game, it’s about picking your opponent’s worst game, so there’s a lot more to it.”
Mizrachi said he is unsure whether he will enter the $1,500 buy-in “Millionaire Maker” No-limit Hold ’em tournament that starts today at the Rio Convention Center. The “Millionaire Maker” features a guaranteed $1 million first prize, and last year’s event with 7,977 entrants was the second-largest field in WSOP history at the time.
Despite his win in the Omaha HighLow event this week, Mizrachi currently is not in the top 20 of the WSOP Player of the Year standings. He hopes to climb the leaderboard over the next few weeks as more of the mixed games pop up on the schedule.
“I’m going to try my best, but ...” Mizrachi said. “I’ll play a lot more events, try to get healthy and stay focused.” Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.