Michael Mizrachi

Current Residence	Hollywood, CA, USA
Born	January 5, 1981
Birth Place	Miami, FL, USA
Total Winnings	$29,000,000

There are only a few players who can truly be called “living poker legends,” and Michael Mizrachi is one of them. And that’s not just an empty phrase — dozens of other “living poker legends” would agree. Michael Mizrachi has set a record that is unlikely to ever be repeated.

Main Information

Nickname: «The Grinder»
Nationality: USA
Residence: Hollywood, Florida
Born: January 5, 1981
Age: 44

Michael Mizrachi Last Results

Place	Event	Winnings
38th	$10K NLHE GG Million$ Onyx Super High Roller Series 2025	$23K
1st	$10K WSOP Main Event World Championship 2025	$10M
1st	$50K WSOP Poker Players Championship 2025	$1,33M

Michael Mizrachi’s Biography

Michael Mizrachi was born on January 5, 1981, in Miami, Florida. The Mizrachi family has four brothers:

• the eldest — Robert Mizrachi (also a professional poker player)
• Eric Mizrachi, Michael’s twin brother, born two minutes later (a semi-professional player)
• and Daniel (a professional DJ known as DJ Mizrachi).

Michael Mizrachi grew up in “a family of gamblers,” as he says, so maybe it was inevitable he’d become one of the most renowned poker players in the world.

“We grew up with slot machines and roulette tables in the house,” he told PokerListings in an interview in 2017. “My brother used to have a slot machine during high school and sometimes my father would wake him up in the middle of the night and say ‘Rob, I need some quarters for the slot machine, like $10.’

“We were a family of gamblers. My mom would play Gin Rummy and all those games. Robert pretty much brought me on board as a kid and when I was 16 I was playing professionally.”

Related Reading:

• 7 Rules for Switching from Online Poker to Live (and Vice-Versa)

Poker Career

Robert was the one who taught everyone in the family how to play poker.

Michael started playing online at the age of 15 — on Planet Poker and Paradise Poker. In fact, he was among the very first people to ever try online poker. His style back then was tight and conservative.

When choosing a nickname, Michael spent a long time looking for a word that would describe him. His first attempts — Michael_34, the_raker, Mike_Miz, bigstack — didn’t feel right. But “the_grinder” fit perfectly, and it has remained his nickname ever since.

He played nonstop, earning $3–4K a day. He wasn’t doing it for the money — he simply loved the game. By nature, he was a pure gambler; all he ever wanted to do was play.

Robert often took Michael with him on trips where they would gamble together. When Michael turned 18, they went to Gila River Casino in Arizona. Robert wanted to teach him bankroll management: he split their money into seven envelopes and told him to use one per day — if they lost, the day was over; if they won, the profits went back into the envelope, and a new one could be opened only the next day.

However, on the very first day, Robert returned to their hotel room to find all seven envelopes opened. Michael couldn’t resist the temptation — he just enjoyed spending money. As he later admitted, he would probably do the same thing even today.

His first live poker experience came aboard a cruise ship. No one at the tables ever checked, and he happily played $2–5 Limit Hold’em, making about $100 a day. Poker became his only source of entertainment during the voyage.

After finishing school, Michael enrolled in college to study medicine but dropped out at the age of 23. Later, he got a job as a dealer at Seminole Hard Rock in California, though he was fired shortly after. It was there that he met his future girlfriend and wife, Lily.

Live Poker Achievements

In 2004, Michael Mizrachi switched his focus to tournaments, and success followed quickly. That December, he won the $2K Five-Diamond World Poker Classic for $273K — his first six-figure score. It was a turning point in his career: he had never seen that kind of money before, and from that moment on, he kept moving forward without ever looking back.

His relationship with Lily developed rapidly, and at 23, Michael became a father for the first time. With the birth of his first child, his poker career began to soar. In January 2005, he finished 5th in the $10K WPT Open Championship for $288.4K, won another $100K online just days later, and in February claimed the $10K WPT L.A. Poker Classic title, earning $1,859,909.

A year later, Mizrachi captured his second $10K WPT Main Event title, adding another $1,173,373 to his bankroll. The very next day, on February 2, 2006, his daughter was born. Each major win in his life seemed to coincide with a personal milestone, and he would later recall that February as one of the best periods of his career.

Between 2005 and 2006, Mizrachi cashed in over 45 live events, earning more than $5M in total. After that, he spent $170K on a 12-meter motorhome so he could travel the poker circuit without being separated from his family.

In 2016, Michael and Lily separated but remained on good terms and kept in touch.

After a string of huge victories, Mizrachi faced serious financial trouble. The reason was a series of failed real estate investments — he had bought seven homes worth millions, but the Florida housing market soon collapsed.

In early 2010, the IRS seized assets worth $339.7K for unpaid taxes on income from 2005 to 2007. Two of his Florida properties were confiscated, including a condominium he co-owned with his brother Robert. Despite the setback, Mizrachi was confident he could bounce back — and he did so within just a year.

At the 2010 WSOP, Mizrachi entered the $50K Poker Players Championship, which drew 116 entrants. Both he and his brother Robert reached the final table, and, ironically, Michael knocked Robert out in 5th place ($341.4K). Michael went on to win the tournament and claim the $1,559,046 top prize.

After the victory, he allowed himself a rare indulgence — spending $17K in a club that night, an amount he joked could have bought a new car.

That win marked the beginning of an incredible year. In 2010, Mizrachi achieved a run of results that most players could only dream of achieving in a lifetime:

• 6th place in the $10K Stud Championship ($69K)
• 8th place in the $10K Limit Hold’em Championship ($49.7K)
• and 5th place in the $10K Main Event ($2.3M)

Why is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi considered a legendary player?

Fifteen years later, Mizrachi proved he was still at the top of his game. At the 2025 WSOP, he once again won the $50K Poker Players Championship for $1.33M — his fourth victory in this prestigious event, an unmatched record in poker history. 

But that wasn’t all. In the same year, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi captured the $10K WSOP Main Event title for $10,000,000. Later that year, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame — bypassing the usual selection process.

And in October 2025, Michael Mizrachi signed on as a Global Ambassador for GGPoker, the world’s largest online poker room.

Top Five Career Cashes Prizes

Place	Prize	Event
1st	$10,000,000	$10K NLHE WSOP Main Event, Las Vegas 2025
5th	$2,332,992	$10K NLHE WSOP Main Event, Las Vegas 2010
1st	$1,859,909	$9.6K + 397 NLHE WPT L.A. Poker Classic, Los Angeles 2005
1st	$1,559,046	$50K WSOP Poker Players Championship, Las Vegas 2010
1st	$1,451,527	$50K WSOP Poker Players Championship, Las Vegas 2012

Michael «The Grinder» Mizrachi’s Socials

Twitter: @TheGrinder44

Instagram: thegrinder44

Twitch: No Info

YouTube: No Info