Michael Mizrachi Grinds Out 2025 WSOP Main Event Victory!
We have a new poker champion as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi prevailed in the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, securing the coveted gold bracelet along with $10 million in prize money. He finalized his victory over a field of 9,735 on the 10th day of play on Wednesday, July 16 when he trounced his three remaining opponents in just 20 hands. The runner-up, Josh Wasnock, won a prize of $6 million.
About the Final Day of Play
After nine days of play, the remaining four contenders reconvened to play down to a winner on July 16. They assembled at 2 p.m. in the Event Center at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas.
The Horseshoe Casino, Host of the WSOP ME Final TableGoing into the last day, the chip stacks were as follows:
- Michael Mizrachi – 445,500,000
- John Wasnock – 94,500,000
- Braxton Dunaway – 25,500,000
- Kenny Hallaert – 19,000,000
Mizrachi was the overwhelming favorite to take the tournament down at this point, and he did not disappoint. He started things off in fine fashion by calling Kenny Hallaert's A♥ Q♣ all-in while holding K◆ J◆ and knocking him out.
The very next hand saw Michael jam his A◆ T◆ into Braxton Dunaway's T♥ 6♥.. Braxton called and did not improve, so he finished in third place.
It was now heads-up with “The Grinder,” a 44-year old poker pro from Florida, squaring off against John Wasnock, 50, who is an investment banker living near Seattle. Unfortunately for Wasnock, Mizrachi continued his winning momentum.
After a brief period of inconsequential sparring, the ultimate hand of the afternoon came. John kicked the action off by raising to 5 million from the button, and Michael called.
The A◆ 9♣ 7♣ flop went check-check. On the 4♣ turn, Wasnock made it 10 million to go. Mizrachi stood up, pointed upward, and raised to 30 million. John three-bet all-in for 30.5 million more, and Michael quickly called. The hands were revealed:
John Wasnock: A♠ 9◆
Michael Mizrachi: T♣ 3♣
Board: A◆ 9♣ 7♣ 4♣
Mizrachi was ahead with a made flush, but Wasnock's top two pair had a chance to boat up on the river. However, the 5♣ came on the river, and Michael's hand was good.
Final Table Payouts
The nine final tablists in the Main Event all walked away with at least $1 million. Here's the exact breakdown:
| Position | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Mizrachi | United States | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | John Wasnock | United States | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | Braxton Dunaway | United States | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | Kenny Hallaert | Belgium | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Luka Bojovic | Serbia | $2,400,000 |
| 6 | Adam Hendrix | United States | $1,900,000 |
| 7 | Leo Margets | Spain | $1,500,000 |
| 8 | Jarod Minghini | United States | $1,250,000 |
| 9 | Daehyung Lee | Korea | $1,000,000 |
While Mizrachi was the most accomplished professional poker player heading into the final table, there was at least one other individual of note yet remaining. Spain's Leo Margets was hoping to become the first female Main Event winner in history, but she wound up finishing in seventh.
Post-Victory Hubbub
Even before the river was dealt in the last hand, Michael Mizrachi's friends on the rail started cheering. When Michael's victory was confirmed, they broke into riotous celebration.
Speaking of that last, fateful hand, Michael said:
It was a crazy hand. I think, after all these days, I couldn’t even see the cards. I thought he had the ace of clubs, then I thought he was drawing dead. And then they said, no, no, he has two pair. I didn’t even realize that.
Although Nick Schulman had already been enshrined as the 2025 inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame, following Mizrachi's Main Event victory, he was immediately announced as the newest Hall of Fame member, bypassing the usual selection process.
Following his impressive win, Mizrachi posted on X thanking his family and friends:
Michael Mizrachi Biography
Sometimes the Main Event propels a hitherto unknown individual to the heights of poker fame and glory, but this was not the case in 2025 because Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was already a well-established and respected poker pro.
Born in 1981 in Miami, Mizrachi still resides in Florida. Though he began playing live tournaments and online poker shortly after turning 18, he actually studied at a community college for a while before dropping out and going pro in 2004. At this early stage of his career, Michael benefited greatly from the advice of his older brother Robert who is an accomplished poker professional in his own right.
Michael “The Grinder” MizrachiMichael began racking up the tournament wins almost from the start. One notable early achievement was a first-place finish in the 2005 $10,000 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event: an achievement for which he was rewarded with $1.86 million in prize money.
Despite this early success with the WPT, it would wind up being in WSOP events where “The Grinder” recorded his most impressive results. Among his 104 WSOP cashes were four wins in the prestigious $50,000 Poker Players Championship event (in 2010, 2012, 2018, and 2025) as well as a deep run in the 2010 WSOP Main Event where he finished fifth for $2.3 million.
Already heading into 2025 with six gold bracelets to his credit, he improved his total to eight with victories in the Poker Players Championship and the Main Event – not a bad year for The Grinder! His live tournament earnings now stand at more than $29 million.
More About the 2025 WSOP
The World Series of Poker took place at the Paris and Horseshoe Casinos in Las Vegas as has been the case since 2022. Caesars sold the WSOP brand name to GGPoker in October 2024, but this doesn't seem to have had much, if any, impact on the way the series was run. Under the terms of the deal, Caesars retains the right to host the WSOP for 20 years. Perhaps more will change going forward.
The Main Event had four starting days and 10 overall days of play, which took place from July 2 to 16. 9,735 entrants together generated a prize pool of $90,535,500. Both figures fell short of the new records set at the 2024 WSOP but were good for third-highest in history.
The series as a whole did, however, set a record for most prize money distributed with $480.2 million in prizes awarded across 100 live bracelet events. In addition, there were 30 online bracelets available to those registered for WSOP Online. The 100 live tournaments generated $47 million in tournament fees with the online events estimated to have contributed approximately $3 million in fees.
The Player of the Year was Shaun Deeb, marking the second year for which he has taken this honor. The UK's Benny Glaser was second on the leaderboard followed by Michael Mizrachi in third place.
Practice for the WSOP Online
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July 18, 2025 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief