Michael Mizrachi, also known as "The Grinder", has won the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open, only one week after finishing second in the WPT Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica. The soon-to-be father took home $1,173,373 in cash, a Cadillac Escalade and an entry into the WPT championship for his efforts.
You can read a full "live blogging" report of the final table action at the Tao of Poker. Here's a short recap:
The final table was made up of the following players:
- Erick Lindgren, $2,635,000
- Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, $2,040,000
- Josh Spiegelman, $1,635,000
- John D'Agostino, $1,340,000
- Stuart "Donator" Paterson, $1,060,000
- Amnon Filippi, $820,000
Paterson was the first to be eliminated after little more than one hour of play when his AT was beaten by Mizrachi's AK. Two hours later the short-stacked Spiegelman went all-in with KQ suited only to be called by D'Agostino's J8. D'Agostino flopped two pair and Spiegelman was out when all cards were on the table. A little later D'Agostino became the chipleader by taking out Filippi with big slick.
Lindgren became severely short-stacked after losing a nut flush draw against Mizrachi's flush on an all-spades flop. He was eliminated by D'Agostino soon after. D'Agostino had now eliminated three players and seemed destined to win the tourney. He only needed to take out Michael Mizrachi and the $1,173,373 first prize would be his. The only problem for D'Agostino was Mizrachi's 5 to 4 chiplead.
Mizrachi had other plans however. He won two big pots from D'Agostino and increased his chiplead to more than 3 to 1. On the final hand D'Agostino didn't complete his straight and lost against Mizrachi's two pair. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi became the new Borgate Winter Poker Open Champion, only one week after finishing second in the WPT Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica.