Michael Mizrachi has once again raised the bar in what can be argued as poker’s most prestigious event.
Already sharing the record for most $50,000 Poker Players Championship victories with Brian Rast, Mizrachi now stands alone after capturing his historic fourth title on Saturday at the 2025 World Series of Poker. "The Grinder" conquered the 107-entry field, earning $1,331,322 from the $5,162,750 prize pool and further cementing his legacy as the event's most dominant force.
The now seven-time bracelet winner previously won the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy in 2010, 2012, and 2018. But with this latest victory, Mizrachi has separated himself as the only four-time PPC champion, an achievement many consider one of the rarest and most difficult in tournament poker.
It was pure domination from start to finish for Mizrachi, knocking out five of the seven returning players inside Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.
All-Time Money List leader Bryn Kenney fell short in his bid to stop Mizrachi, finishing runner-up for $887,542, while Esther Taylor made history by placing third for $595,136, the deepest run ever by a woman in the PPC, surpassing Melissa Burr’s seventh-place finish from 2014.
2025 PPC Final Table Results
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (USD)
1
Michael Mizrachi
United States
$1,331,322
2
Bryn Kenney
United States
$887,542
3
Esther Taylor
United States
$595,136
4
Andrew Yeh
United States
$413,740
5
Joao Vieira
Portugal
$298,614
6
Albert Daher
Lebanon
$224,077
7
Ben Lamb
United States
$175,096
Mizrachi Eyes Fifth Title and the Hall of Fame
Michael Mizrachi
Mizrachi was quick to admit that this latest victory may have been his most complete performance yet.
“I probably played better than the last three I won,” he reflected. “Everything went my way this tournament. I was always at the top of the leaderboard, never really got short, and probably played my best overall.”
Everything went my way this tournament. I was always at the top of the leaderboard, never really got short, and probably played my best overall
Rast captured his third Poker Players Championship title in 2023 and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame the following year, a timeline Mizrachi now hopes to follow. As he sealed his record-breaking fourth PPC crown, chants of “Hall of Fame” echoed from the rail inside the Horseshoe.
“Yeah, if I win the fifth one, maybe,” Mizrachi joked. “No, I’m kidding. But this is quite an accomplishment, and I hope so. Hopefully, next year I get inducted too.”
The competitive fire still burns, though, with Mizrachi not content to stop at four.
“Brian, I’ve got one more, you’ve got to catch up now - I’m going for number five!”
Final Day Action
Mizrachi's bid for an unprecedented fourth PPC title couldn’t have started much better, as he eliminated the first three players of the day within the opening level.
First to fall was Ben Lamb, who bowed out in seventh place on the opening hand after his low draw bricked in Stud Hi-Lo against Mizrachi and Albert Daher. Mizrachi scooped the more than five million chip pot with a flush to climb up the counts, while Daher was left on fumes. Despite a brief rally, Daher couldn’t recover. A huge clash in 2-7 Triple Draw with Taylor left him with less than a big bet, and Mizrachi finished the job soon after, his sixes holding in a flip against the high-stakes cash game player in No-Limit Hold'em.
Esther Taylor, Michael Mizrachi, Bryn Kenney
Mizrachi's momentum didn’t slow there. In the same orbit, he bluffed $100,000 High Roller champion Joao Vieira off top pair with just four-high, giving himself nearly half the chips in play. The pair tangled again moments later in Stud, where Mizrachi made another flush to leave Vieira on fumes. Those last few chips found their way into Mizrachi's stack the following hand, completing a clean sweep of eliminations in the first level of the day.
Mizrachi's dominance persisted into the second level, where he downed Andrew Yeh in Pot-Limit Omaha, setting up three-handed play against Taylor and Kenney, who was rooted to the bottom of the counts.
Taylor looked poised to become the first female player to reach heads-up in the PPC, but Kenney mounted a comeback with doubles through her in Stud, Omaha Hi-Lo, and Limit Hold’em. The final blow came in No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw, where Kenney made a wheel to crack her pat-nine and eliminate Taylor in third.
Mizrachi had one hand on the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy heading into heads-up play with a commanding 15:1 chip lead. Kenney never came close to overturning the deficit, and it wasn’t long before Mizrachi etched his name in the poker history books once again.
Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game.
Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
