Michael Mizrachi's Most Important 2025 Main Event Hands

Michael Mizrachi has capped off one of the most impressive summers in World Series of Poker history, winning both the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and the 2025 Main Event. Those wins earned him $1.3 million and $10 million respectively, bringing his total for the series to over $11.3 million.

The craziest part? On Day 8 of the Main Event, Mizrachi was down to just three big blinds after losing ace-jack all in against ace-queen.

And that’s where things turned around.

Ace-King vs. Ace-Ten

With his tournament life on the line, Mizrachi gets it in with ace-king against ace-ten.

Flop comes
Turn:
River:

He survives. The Grinder is still alive.

A6 vs. A7 – Four Big Blinds

With 24 players left, Mizrachi gets it in again, this time with ace-six against ace-seven.

Flop: . Mizrachi holds the .
Turn:
River:

Flush on the river. He’s up to nine big blinds.

Still short, but out of the danger zone.

King-Jack vs. Pocket Fives

Now with 12 big blinds, Mizrachi moves all in with king-jack against Braxton Dunaway’s pocket fives. He’s about 47% to win and needs it to stay alive.

Flop: . He holds the .
Turn: .
River: . Flush again.

He doubles to 24 big blinds. Now he has some playability — not just surviving, but building.

Even with that stack, he’s still toward the bottom of the leaderboard. Just look at the chip counts: his 16 million is barely keeping him afloat. But momentum is on his side.

Pocket Queens vs. Pocket Nines — Controversial Spot

With 18 players left, Tony Gregg opens with pocket nines. Dunaway flats the button. Mizrachi, in the big blind, wakes up with queens and shoves for 22 bigs.

Gregg tanks, then calls. In theory, this is a mandatory call — but some questioned it, given the circumstances.

They see the bad news: Mizrachi has queens. Gregg needs a nine.

Flop: — clean for Mizrachi.
Turn: .
River:

No nine. Mizrachi doubles again. Just over an hour earlier, he had less than 2 million chips. Now he’s one of the biggest stacks with 18 left.

He’s fired up, standing, animated — acting like he’s on a heater at the craps table. But for Tony Gregg, it’s no dice. The queens hold.

Only All-In Loss — Ace-Eight vs Ace Queen

The only time Mizrachi busts an all-in during this stretch is with ace-eight for six big blinds.

This guy can't catch a break.

Ace Jack vs Ace Four

We fast forward to 11 players left. Two eliminations away from the most prestigious final table in poker. Michael Mizrachi, now holding a sizable stack of about 63 million chips, finds himself in another huge all-in — this time against none other than Tony Gregg.

Gregg is on the shorter stack here, down to around 10 million, and picks up Ace-Four suited. When the action folds to him, he ships it all in. Mizrachi looks down at Ace-Jack of spades and makes the easy call, putting Gregg at risk.

Flop comes , with two spades — giving Mizrachi the nut flush draw and a dominating ace-high. Gregg looks defeated already. You can see it in his face. He's been here before and knows how hard it is to survive this deep.
Turn
River – no help.

Tony Gregg is eliminated in 11th place, just two spots shy of the final table, and Michael Mizrachi adds even more ammunition to his already loaded arsenal.

Ace-King vs. Pocket Kings

Down to seven players. Mizrachi picks up ace-king. His opponent has pocket kings.

All the chips go in.

More than 151 million chips in the middle. The winner of this pot will be the favorite to win the Main Event.

It looked like he was done on the turn — until he gave them the old Barry Greenstein.

And look, in theory it doesn’t matter that much because he was always going all in, but I don’t love Mizrachi’s four-bet to 30 million with ace-king. It’s a weird sizing — kind of stuck between a small four-bet and a jam. At this stack depth, just rip it in. Save the clock, save the headache.

Also, what do you guys think — was this a tell? When someone says “we’re going up” after putting in a raise, it doesn’t exactly scream fold equity. I would be loving pocket Kings though.

After this insane suckout and celebration, Mizrachi is now chip leader with six players left. But his work isn’t done. With 150 million chips, he’s only holding about a quarter of the chips in play. He’s in the lead, but far from locking it up.

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Ace King vs Pocket Jacks of Hendrix

Next comes another all-in for Mizrachi — ace-king once again, this time against Hendrix.

He shows ace-king off.

And it’s pocket jacks for Hendrix.

Hendrix, starting with just under 30 big blinds, faces an open from the chip leader. This is a classic squeeze spot — he three-bets with the jacks, and once Mizrachi rips, Hendrix knows it’s on the line.

More than 150 million in the pot. This could change the entire tournament.

Flop is — clean so far for the jacks.
Turn is a
River is a

With a towering chip lead of over 200 million, we now arrive at what might be the most debated hand of the entire Main Event...

Ace King vs Pocket Sevens

Our next hand is a rare post-flop spot. Don’t you just love tournament poker?

We see Mizrachi make a pretty loose preflop call with 8-5 offsuit. You might be asking yourself, should he really be making this call? Well, for that, let’s send it over to leading poker analyst and Upswing Poker pro Uri Peleg.

Fascinating stuff from the head coach of Lab 2.0.

The flop comes rainbow — and it’s wild. All three players connect with the board in some way. Dunaway has the best of it, flopping a double gutter with Queen-8, giving him a draw to the nuts. Hallaert and Mizrachi also flop gutshots with their eights, but Hallaert's is higher — if a jack comes, he makes the better straight.

We have three players all flopping straight draws. Dunaway with definitely the best draw — a queen makes the nuts, and an eight makes the high end of the straight. Both other players also flop straight draws with their eights, but Hallaert would have the higher straight if a jack comes. So Mizrachi is drawing very thin here on the flop.

All three players decide to pot control and check, taking a safe turn (2 of spades). That opens the door for Mizrachi to make what might be the best play we’ve seen at the final table so far.

Ali, after betting the turn and getting called in two spots — by Hallaert with an open-ender and a flush draw, and by Dunaway with a double gutter — watches as everybody bricks the river.

The board pairs with a , and Mizrachi fires a second barrel to try and take this one down — 25 million chips.

It gets through instantly. Both players fold. Mizrachi rakes in another big one, increasing his chip lead and improving his odds to win the event.

Queen Ten vs King Jack

Next hand. Mizrachi opens with queen-ten and gets called in two spots — king-jack suited and nine-seven offsuit.

He lets his opponents know he thinks this one’s going to be a big pot.

The flop comes , rainbow.

Mizrachi has middle pair with a decent kicker. Hallaert has top pair, third-best kicker. Dunaway totally misses.

Mizrachi decides to bet the flop. He could check this back, and I prefer checking. Don’t hate a bet every now and then, but you’ll often get called by worse — like Hallaert’s king-jack — which is exactly what happens. Dunaway folds.

Turn card coming. Oh dear. It’s the . Mizrachi improves to two pair. Hallaert improves to top pair with an open-ender. The queen also brings in a backdoor flush draw.

Hallaert checks.

Now in Mizrachi’s spot, you should check this back some of the time. Your hand is good, but your opponent can have ace-jack, jack-nine suited, king-queen, queen-ten, or even a chop. There are hands that beat you, and hands that will call you down.

But Mizrachi has other plans. He fires again for value.

For Hallaert, folding isn’t really an option, and raising would be reckless.

68 million in the pot. Grinder is a two-to-one favorite.

River is a total brick. The changes nothing.

Hallaert checks again.

Now queen-ten is getting a little thin for a river value bet. But maybe, just maybe, Mizrachi knows his opponent. He knows he’s up against one pair. And if he knows that, he’s got to size up and go for it.

And that’s exactly what he does — 60 million chips on the river, targeting most of Hallaert’s remaining stack.

Hallaert once held a massive stack. If he calls and is wrong, nearly all of it will be gone — and all of it will have gone to Michael Mizrachi.

Hallaert makes the call, and he’s wrong. He loses a massive pot to Mizrachi.

Final Four Players – Interesting ICM Situation

One more bustout follows quickly, and we’re down to four players.

Michael Mizrachi is now holding more than 75 percent of all the chips in play.

He is in prime position to win the entire tournament heading into the final day of the WSOP Main Event.

Let’s look at the payouts. The winner gets 10 million. Second place takes six million. Then it’s four million for third, and three million for fourth.

But the stack dynamics are difficult. Two players are on about 20 million. The second-place stack has around 100 million. He’s in a strange spot — in theory, he could fold to third place and lock up at least three million if the shorts bust to Mizrachi.

King Jack vs Ace Queen – Hallaert Busts

Kenny picks up ace-queen offsuit. All in. That’s the only move.

Grinder wakes up with king-jack of diamonds.

Flop:
Turn:
River:

Ace Ten vs Ten Six – Dunaway Busts

Now Dunaway. Ten-six of hearts in the big blind. Blind versus blind.

Of course, he knows Mizrachi is attacking with a wide range. But ten-six suited doesn’t do well against most hands. Still, he’s the shortest stack and wants to gamble. Let’s run it. He’s in rough shape.

On the flop of , Mizrachi dominates him.
The turn is a .
A river for good measure. It’s over.

A table of four just became a table of two.

Dunaway commented from 2nd place – "I have to say, that’s the fastest three million I’ve ever made."

Ten Three vs Ace Nine – Final Hand of 2025 WSOP Main Event

Just like that, we are heads-up. A gigantic chip lead for Michael Mizrachi. But now, he has to close it out.

In the first major hand of heads-up play, we see a monster cooler. Top two pair versus a turned flush.

Flop –
Turn –

Mizrachi checks to trap. His opponent bets. Mizrachi responds with a check-raise all in — the signature move.

“We’re going upstairs.”

The call comes quickly. All in.

Mizrachi just needs to fade a full house to win the 2025 WSOP Main Event.

Before the river, I went back and looked at Mizrachi’s major all-ins throughout this run. Ten massive pots where he was either all in, or his opponent was all in with big equity.

Here were his winning percentages for each of those hands:

He won all ten. The odds of winning all ten of those? Just 0.14 percent. That’s a little more than one in a thousand.

And now, the final river card of the WSOP 2025 Main Event. It's an inconsequential .

A special moment after the victory — Michael Mizrachi becomes the first player to earn his way into the Poker Hall of Fame by winning the WSOP Main Event. It’s official. The announcement came after the tournament.

With multiple deep runs and two of the most prestigious wins possible in a single summer, there is no doubt he earned it.

Congratulations to Michael Mizrachi.