Mike Mizrachi Wins WSOP $50K Player's Championship

$1.55 million in prize money, a prestigious bracelet and other rewards for poker pro Mike Mizrachi won through in the $50 000 buy-in mixed game Player's Championship at the World Series of Poker early Wednesday, besting a field of 116 of the best players in the world to win his first WSOP bracelet, $1.55 million in cash, and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. "It's definitely worth the wait," a delighted Mizrachi said. "This is one of the most prestigious tournaments in poker.” With the hard fought championship down to fourhanded play, Mizrachi took on and ousted John Juanda and David Oppenheim to enter the heads up against Russian player Vladimir Schmelev. Schmelev initially appeared to have Mizrachi's number and looked set to win the event, but Mizrachi staged a bright comeback, eventually dominating his opponent and taking the honours. The final table payouts looked like this: Michael Mizrachi – $1,559,046 Vladimir Schmelev – $963,375 David Oppenheim – $603,348 John Juanda – $436,865 Robert Mizrachi – $341,429 David Baker – $272,275 Daniel Alaei – $221,105 Mikael Thuritz – $182,463 In the $1 000 buy-in NLHE event a final table was reached after 5 tough days of action in which all but nine of the original 4345 starters fell by the wayside. On Wednesday afternoon the final nine took their seats with Adam Dava holding a chip lead of over half a million on opponents Cory Brown, Gabe Costner, Dash Dudley, Bart Davis, Nicholas Mitchell, Isaac Settle, Richard Rice and Deepak Bhatti – all going after the big money in a prize pool that topped $3.9 million in this event. Every one of the final table players was guaranteed a paycheck of over $50 000, and the atmosphere was intense but friendly as the action started. By 8pm Vegas time the game was down to three handed play with level 30 blinds at 60,000/120,000, Ante at 15,000 and average stack $4,345,000. Bhatti, who had started the day as the low chip count had enjoyed a great session to reach the final three players, and after the break went on to face Adam Dava in the heads up after Gabe Costner was eliminated in third place. By 10pm Vegas time Wednesday, the $5 000 buy-in NLHE Shootout players were down to 6, vying for the remaining seats at the final table for the event. Ben May, Chino Rheem, Blair Hinkle and Eugene Katchalov had all been eliminated, and Julien Nuijten and Stuart Rutter; Danny Estes and Josh Tieman and Joe Elpayaa and Cary Katz were playing for the three final table places, most of them agreeing on bail-out bets in case they did not make the $72 000 payment levels that go with final table play. In Event #4: $1500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Michael Chow outlasted 818 players en route to a bracelet and $237 140 after besting runner up Dan Heimiller, who had to be content with a second placing paycheck of $146 505. Ylon Schwartz took third for $94,561.
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