Imagine a world where, on May 26, the day before the 2025 World Series of Poker began, someone casually floated the idea of drafting Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi in the $25K Fantasy league. Not just to pick him for a deep run in one event, but to predict that he’d win both the $50K Poker Players Championship and the WSOP Main Event.
People would’ve laughed you out of the PokerGO Studio. As it turned out, a Mizrachi was drafted, but it was the Grinder’s brother Robert Mizrachi. Michael Mizrachi didn’t even go for a single dollar. If you tried booking a bet on the aforementioned double win, anyone would’ve given you a million-to-one odds. That’s the stuff of fiction. Fantasy. A poker fairy tale that simply couldn’t possibly happen in real life.
And yet, it just did.
The Grinder: Poker’s Everyman Hero
Michael Mizrachi has been one of poker’s biggest stars for over a decade and a half, but his appeal has never just been about talent or hardware. It’s about his relatability. Despite having now amassed over $29 million in tournament winnings, he still comes off as the guy you’d want to spend the night out on the town with or swap stories with after a long cash game session.
We admire the “naturals” in poker. The ones who might not have studied GTO and hand range charts to the decimal point, but who just have it. That unteachable knack. That magic. That ability to instinctively know what you’re holding, how to maneuver their way towards scooping a pot, and how to push the limits of the game.
The Grinder has always had that, and this summer the world was reminded of it in full force.
2025 WSOP Main Event: A Final Table for the Ages
What Mizrachi did at the final table of the 2025 WSOP Main Event was downright epic. Even with the incredible Leo Margets storyline having been snuffed out with her seventh place elimination, Grinder’s absolute dominance managed to keep the atmosphere electric in Las Vegas. The sheer pace and precision with which he decimated the field felt more like an ongoing highlight reel than a tournament.
He was unstoppable. He could do no wrong.
Michael Mizrachi won his last 10 all in and calls on his way to victory.
Nine of them were preflop all-ins.
To go nine-for-nine in those hands, Mizrachi’s chances were around 0.275 percent (1 in 364).
Aggression + Experience + Luck = Unstoppable. https://t.co/mgBF8XvX8S
— Tim Fiorvanti (@tim00) July 17, 2025
On Tuesday, Day 1 of the final table, play whittled down from nine players to four in rapid-fire succession. When play ended for the day after just a few down hands, it felt as though the referees had to “stop the fight” — not to save Mizrachi’s opponents, but to save the broadcast schedule! He was that much of an irresistible force.
Before play resumed yesterday for Day 2 of the final table, Mizrachi even went so far as to call his shot.
Pretty boss answer towards the end I must say from @TheGrinder44: pic.twitter.com/r00pQFTnnL
— Jeff Platt (@jeffplatt) July 16, 2025
His off the cuff, almost matter-of-fact reply to Jeff Platt, that it would take “an hour” to finish the job? Well, it took even less than that! Within two hands of play resuming, it was already a heads-up contest. In what felt like mere moments later, it was all over but the coronation.
Poker, with Pure Emotion from an All-Time Great
In the modern poker world, the expression of emotion seems to have become a relatively scare scene. That was most certainly not the case while witnessing the Grinder’s run to immortality.
🔥 RUN OF A LIFETIME! 🔥
Michael Mizrachi is on a mission for $10,000,000 and the @WSOP Main Event bracelet.
Can @TheGrinder44 close it out?
Watch LIVE on https://t.co/v5qF0qsSw4! 6 PM ET/3 PM PT. pic.twitter.com/8tTGJpO6Vl
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 16, 2025
Mizrachi’s celebrations were raw, unfiltered, and beautiful. During the final hand, he was so overwhelmed with joy that he misread the board, exclaiming “it’s over!” before realizing his opponent still had outs. His rail exploded anyway, mirroring how Mizrachi was wearing his heart on his sleeve.
The Grinder didn’t just win the WSOP Main Event, he gave us the reasons to care about the winner. Master commentator and wordsmith Ali Nejad perhaps articulated it best:
This one got me a little shook. Straight into the hall as well was the right cherry from @wsop. Much love @TheGrinder44. ’25 PPC & ME champ. 🏆🏆💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/RwTP0Ek3cm
— Ali Nejad (@Ali_Nejad) July 16, 2025
A Hall of Fame-Worthy Moment
In what could only be described as a perfect moment, poker’s best of the best collectively made a snap decision: Michael Mizrachi would be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame on the spot. It was unprecedented, but so was the achievement that one of poker’s best players has just managed to unlock.
What could possibly have been more validating than seeing nearly a dozen Hall of Famers show up, surround him, hug him, and celebrate both what Mizrachi had done and who he is. In reflecting back upon the 2025 World Series of Poker, one can choose to focus on the negative stories, but the Grinder’s crowning achievement will forever be the story that we remember.
In a surprise decision , the Hall of Fame committee unanimously voted to induct Michael Mizrachi (@TheGrinder44). For not only an outstanding career but pulling off the most incredible performance that the WSOP has ever seen. #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/eyLezYy18C
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 17, 2025
On Grinders vs. Solvers
Incredibly, Mizrachi has already done something eerily similar before, 15 years ago, in 2010, when he won the $50K Poker Players Championship and final-tabled the Main Event, climbing as high as 4th on the all-time list. Somehow, now at age 44, he bested his own incredible performance, winning both the PPC (for a fourth time!) and the Main Event.
Congrats @TheGrinder44 @WSOP @PokerGO pic.twitter.com/W3uwAFcvZd
— Antonio Abrego (@_antonio_abrego) July 17, 2025
Yet, despite this $10 million score, Mizrachi now sits just 31st on poker’s all-time money list. Once upon a time, as recently as 2013, a Main Event victory instantly vaulted players into the top 10, but no longer. For someone who had previously had $19 million in lifetime tournament poker earnings to literally win the WSOP Main Event and still not even crack the top 30?! Poker just isn’t the same as it used to be, with the all-time money list being forever tainted by the emergence of the high roller circuit.
I don’t think there’s anyone out there who believes that the Grinder is suddenly going to start firing in $100K Triton events now. As longtime poker fans might recall, he tried that kind of shot before, once, in 2012 when he “parlayed” a $50K PPC win into a seat in the $1 million Big One for One Drop… and then quickly busted on Day 1. While he’s still the same Grinder, you get the feeling he’s grown up a bit, that this version of Mizrachi has found a better balance between hunger and happiness.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with solver-era crushers; they’re brilliant. They demonstrate what endless study in the lab can accomplish alongside tremendous brainpower.
But their stories just don’t resonate with the average poker fan. The Grinder’s story does.
This summer’s top poker story wasn’t about numbers or rankings; it was about legacy — the kind that solvers can’t simulate.
Instinct, Intuition, and Mama Grinder
One couldn’t help but smile the “aw, shucks” self-awareness and joie de vivre Mizrachi demonstrated in his post-win interviews, as exemplified by this brilliantly-edited clip from PokerGO:
The greatest poker accomplishment belongs to @TheGrinder44. 👑
Michael Mizrachi won the $50K Poker Players Championship for a fourth time… then blazed through the @WSOP Main Event for $10,000,000. You couldn’t have scripted it any better than this. pic.twitter.com/GLWSUTnmMB
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 17, 2025
“Instincts, feel for the game, knowing my opponent’s hand ranges, knowing when to bluff, knowing when to give up, knowing when to face challenges and adversity…”
Mizrachi knows how to describe his poker talent in plain terms, and while he might be on cloud nine, his feet remain firmly planted on the floor, knowing what matters most. Asked what he plans to do after winning poker’s biggest prize, he didn’t talk about bankroll strategy or travel plans.
“Mama Grinder… she loves to play the slot machines. I’m gonna give her a lot of money to go play some slots.”
It doesn’t get more real than that. 🙂
The Moment Poker Needed
In a summer where Benny Glaser won three bracelets and Shaun Deeb claimed Player of the Year honors, Mizrachi still somehow managed to steal the show. He did it not by grinding GTO ranges, but by doing what he’s always done: playing his heart out, giving us unforgettable memories, and reminding us why we fell in love with poker in the first place.
ESPN covered the moment, mainstream media embraced it, and for once, the entire poker world seems to be uniformly reveling in joy.
Hollywood couldn’t possibly have come up with a script like this, but sometimes, real life is even better than fiction.
So let’s embrace this story.
Let’s savor this impossibly special moment.
And then, like the Grinder … let’s all keep on grinding.
