Michael Mizrachi Wins Borgata Winter Poker Open

It has been a good New Year for Michael Mizrachi. Following a second place finish at the WPT Tunica event less than two weeks ago, “The Grinder” improved by one place in Atlantic City, emerging as champion of the 2006 Borgata Winter Poker Open. For the win, he received $1,173,373, a $25,000 entry into the WPT Championship, and a 2006 Cadillac Escalade.

As is the case with all WPT main events, the final television table only consisted of six players, but it was a very strong six. Erick Lindgren started as the chip leader with $2.6 million in chips, followed by Mizrachi with $2 million. Three more were over the million mark – Josh Spiegelman, John D’Agostino, and Stu Paterson. Amnon Filippi had some work to do with only $820,000 in front of him.

About an hour into play, Mizrachi made the first kill of the day, when his A-K dominated Paterson’s A-10. After that, Lindgren beefed up his stack, taking it to almost $4 million. He’s a lock for the final two, right? Not so fast. The John D’Agostino train was about to get rolling.

First, he caught some luck, when he went all-in with J-8 against Spiegelman’s K-Q, flopped two pair to eliminate Spiegelman in fifth place. On the next hand, he doubled up through Mizrachi, Q-Q versus 9-9. Less than ten minutes later, he knocked out Filippi in fourth place. After taking more chips from Mizrachi (not long after Mizrachi found a miracle river to stave off elimination at the hand of Lindgren), D’Agostino had about half the chips at the table. A short time later, D’Agostino finished off former chip leader Lindgren, making it heads-up between him and Mizrachi.

It was fairly even going into heads-up play, Mizrachi with $5 million, D’Agostino with about $4.6 million. The Grinder started out by scooping the first two pots, the second being a substantial one. At that point, Mizrachi had about a 2-1 chip lead and proceeded to grind down (pun intended) his opponent over the course of the next forty minutes.

Mizrachi finally capped the championship when he caught D’Agostino moving all-in on the turn on a semi-bluff, with a gutshot straight draw. Mizrachi had flopped two pair, so he had a huge advantage going into the river. The river helped neither player and Mizrachi took the title.

Final Table Results – Television Table in BOLD

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. Michael Mizrachi -- $1,173,373
2. John D'Agostino -- $591,312
3. Erick Lindgren -- $282,721
4. Amnon Filippi -- $184,785
5. Josh Spiegelman -- $147,828
6. Stuart Patterson -- $110,871
7. Peter Feldman -- $73,914
8. Joe Miceli -- $55,436
9. Don Mullis -- $46,196


Originally published February 3, 2006