So it’s all over and done with…for now. The Machiavellian demolition derby that is the World Series of Poker Main Event is now down to the last nine hold’em players. They must now wait four months before a winner can be crowned. This will give folks in the poker media plenty of time to write the sort of WSOP storylines that ESPN can use to sell their coverage of final table next November. The first, most obvious, angle is that of poker pro Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.
The Mizrachi family may be the hold’em world’s equivalent of the Manning brood in football. Michael is having a “Player of the Year” type of experience and has already won a World Series of Poker bracelet during the 2010 campaign. While his older brother, Robert, has not had as good a run as Michael this year, he is a top poker pro with a WSOP bracelet of his own. Michael’s twin brother, Eric, is not as decorated as his siblings, but has proven to be a threat any time he enters a poker tournament. He, himself has an impressive number of cashes. With four months left to talk about the impending championship, Michael will definitely be the top subject when stories turn to this particular poker tournament.
Michael is in the bottom half of the standings when it comes to chip counts. He must scale a 49 million chip mountain to catch up to current leader, Jonathan Duhamel. Had the poker tournament continued until a winner emerged, the Canadian poker player may have buried The Grinder with his chip lead. Now Michael has approximately 120 days to study and create a game plan to deal with opponents.
For a lot of people, November cannot come soon enough. Michael has an experience edge over a field of relative unknown poker players, but he also has a big chip deficit. Then again, last year Darvin Moon had an intimidating chip lead going into the four month break as well. How did that work out for him? No matter what, it should be interesting next fall.
