Mizrachi Family Stars in GG Million$ as Michael Mizrachi Bags Day 1b Chip Lead

Day 1b of the $10,400 GG Million$ saw 202 entries take their shot at a share of the $5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. After fifteen 40-minute levels, 33 players secured their seats for Day 2.

The Day 1 Turbo is still underway and set to conclude shortly, with final numbers to be confirmed later this evening. Including entries from both opening days, the tournament has already drawn 431 entrants, with 74 players having secured their place in Day 2 so far.

The United States' Michael Mizrachi topped the Day 1b counts with a stack of 1,547,000 after continuing the momentum from his amazing summer, which included induction into the Poker Hall of Fame and winning the World Series of Poker Main Event. His surge to the top was sealed in the final level when his pocket kings improved to a full house against the pocket jacks of Aram Oganyan in a pot of over a million chips.

Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Michael Mizrachi	United States	1,547,000	97
2	Hassan Nashar	Guinea-Bissau	1,393,000	87
3	Aren Bezhanyan	Armenia	1,356,000	85
4	Dafishh		1,001,000	63
5	Orhan Ates	Turkey	1,000,000	63
6	Hao Tian	China	966,000	60
7	Timothy Chung	Hong Kong	847,000	53
8	Armin Rezaei	Austria	823,000	51
9	Raoul Kanme	Netherlands	767,000	48
10	Kenar	Turkey	672,000	42

Action of the Day

When play began, just 27 players were seated and the action was slower than the opening flight. That changed upon with the arrival of the Mizrachi family, that included Eric Mizrachi, Michael Mizrachi, Robert Mizrachi, and Daniel Mizrachi, followed shortly by Michael’s son, Paul Mizrachi. It was possibly one of the first times five members of the same family were competing together in a high-stakes tournament.

With Mizrachi being the most talked-about name in poker, there was a sudden buzz around the tournament area as players and spectators snapped photos. Not long after, Alexey Savenkov cracked the top set of Yiannis Liperis after turning a straight, sending Liperis to the rail when the river failed to pair the board.

Returning for another shot at reaching Day 2, Hassan Nashar wasted no time getting involved after sitting down with a fresh stack. In an early hand, he took one off Aleksandr Chernikov on a paired ace-high board before flashing the deuce of diamonds and joking, “Either you go to the cashier, or I go to the cashier.” Just minutes later, it was Nashar making the trip to the cashier for another buy-in.

The Mizrachi clan wasn’t the only brothers in action, as Armin Rezaei was joined by his sibling Daniel Rezaei in today’s field. Armin bagged up a better than average stack for Day 2, helped by a sizable river value bet against Jianming Luo that was paid off, adding a healthy boost to his stack.

Fresh off chopping a pot with Andrei Boghean, the world champion Mizrachi brother wasted no time going for the knockout on the very next hand. After calling Boghean’s shove from the small blind, Mizrachi offered a quick apology before the flop was dealt, then got lucky to pair his jack and send Boghean to the rail. The hand marked the start of Mizrachi’s rise to the top of the chip counts.

Not all of the Mizrachi clan advanced to Day 2, as both Paul and Robert were eliminated before the end of play. Paul’s exit came when his pocket kings got cracked by the ace-ten of Pedro Ingles, who turned trips and improved to a full house on the river. However, Daniel and Eric made it through, with Eric also scoring a huge double with pocket kings in the final level of the night.

Day 2 will get underway at 12 p.m. local time on Monday, August 11, with blinds resuming at 8,000/16,000 and a big blind ante of 16,000. Levels will increase to 50 minutes in length, and the plan for the day will be announced shortly after play begins.