button in SafariDefending Champ Mizrachi Crushing WSOP Main Event Despite Running into Quads
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"There's no way he could do it, could he?"
That was the question on everyone's lips last summer before Michael Mizrachi pulled off the unthinkable, winning both the Poker Players Championship and the World Series of Poker Main Event.
Now, a year later, people are asking that exact same question.
Mizrachi once again looks poised to make a deep run in the WSOP Main Event, sitting inside the top 50 chip counts, despite falling foul to a quads cooler.
How Mizrachi Span It Up on Day 3
Mizrachi began his Main Event title defense on Day 1b, turning his 60,000 starting stack into a modest 73,200.
The Grinder then lived up to his nickname on Day 2abc, nearly tripling that total to 202,500 by the end of play.
Now, Mizrachi has spun that into 890,000 chips, and has a place among the tournament's biggest stacks. For comparison, when bags came out at the end of Day 3 last year, the defending champ was buried in 1,056th place in the chip counts.
Mizrachi's first big hand on stream came when Dominic Cullen opened to 8,000 from his stack of 549,000 with A♠9♠. The defending champion, holding J♣8♣, called on the button with 267,000, and Rahul Jaisingh came along from the big blind.
The 4♥Q♣6♣ flop checked through. The 9♦ turn gave Cullen second pair and Mizrachi a backdoor club draw. Jaisingh led for 15,000, with both Cullen and Mizrachi calling.
The A♣ river completed Mizrachi's flush. After Jaisingh checked, Cullen bet 40,000 with two pair, unaware he was beaten. Mizrachi mulled it over before raising to 140,000, prompting a quick fold from Cullen as the 92,000 pot was pushed to the defending champion, boosting his stack to 367,000. However, he dropped to 259,000 before moving back in the right direction.
Mizrachi ousted Haoxin Tong for a 298,000 chip pot when his ace-seven beat king-queen in an all-in preflop encounter to take his chip count 412,000. The Poker Hall of Famer took a couple of small pots, making a flush and catching a bluff, to go to 523,000.
Mizrachi put a bad beat on Kyle Arora to drag in another massive pot and score another elimination. Mizrachi check-called called a turn bet with a wheel draw while Arora had two pair with queens and fours. Mizrachi rivered his straight, and collected Arora's final 140,000 after the latter called for his tournament life.
In the same orbit, Mizrachi's heater continued with his ace-jack cracking kings. His overbet on the river was paid off to take him to 910,000.
The champ's stack peaked at 1.2 million but it fell back down when he and Marshall Daigle got into a preflop flip for 647,000 chips. Mizrachi held A♣K♣ and was up against Q♠Q♦. Daigle flopped quad queens to survive, and halted the relentless Mizrachi.
Other Notable Stacks
Should Mizrachi somehow do the unthinkable again, he'll capture his 10th WSOP bracelet in the space of 16 years and his second of the 2026 series.
He already claimed bracelet number nine after a dominant run in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, where he led virtually from start to finish.
Mizrachi isn't the only player to reach nine bracelets this summer, though. Benny Glaser got there first by a few days when he took Mizrachi's Poker Players Championship title, before Shaun Deeb joined the club soon after by ending his heads-up curse in the $1,500 Eight-Game Mix.
Other notable players with big stacks include chip leader GGPoker's Sasha Liu (1,450,000), Deeb (1,075,000), Artur Martirosian (890,000) and Alex Foxen (830,000).
If you're looking to find the chip counts for the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Martin Kabrhel and Will Kassouf. PokerNews regrets to inform you that they have all been eliminated.
How Do Day 3 Chip Leaders Fare in the WSOP Main Event?
Leading the Main Event at the end of Day 3 might sound like the perfect place to be, but recent history suggests otherwise.
In the early years of the Main Event, finishing Day 3 with the chip lead was often a sign of things to come. Between 1975 and 2002, the overnight leader went on to win the title 15 times, with legends such as Stu Ungar, Johnny Chan, Jack Straus, Scotty Nguyen, Chris Ferguson, and Robert Varkonyi all converting their advantage into the biggest title in poker.
However, the modern era has painted a very different picture. The last Day 3 chip leader to reach the Main Event final table was Kenny Hallaert in 2016. The Belgian — who also made the final table last summer — ultimately finished sixth for $1,464,258, but no Day 3 leader has made it that far since.
While a couple of players have still managed deep runs, Aaron Mermelstein (20th in 2022) and Preben Stokkan (21st in 2019) are the only Day 3 chip leaders over the last seven editions to crack the top 25.
History of Day 3 Chip Leaders
