Michael Mizrachi Is 15 Players Away from History

Michael Mizrachi has won the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship twice before — in 2010 and 2014 — and right now he's sitting atop the leaderboard with 16 players remaining and a realistic shot at something no one in WSOP history has done.

No player has ever won the same $10,000 WSOP championship event three times. Not in Hold'em, not in Razz, not in Stud, not in anything. If Mizrachi closes this out, he doesn't just add a ninth bracelet — he owns a record that may never be matched.

No player has ever won the same $10,000 WSOP championship event three times.

The Numbers Right Now

As Day 3 of Event #70 at the Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas ground past midnight, the field collapsed from 21 to 16. Mizrachi's stack grew with it.

He bagged 6,700,000 when the field hit 21. By the time play paused at two tables, he'd built that to 9,150,000 — the chip lead among all remaining players.

The next-largest reported stack belongs to Zurvan Tumboli of India at 4,255,000, less than half of Mizrachi's count. Tumboli has $160,278 in lifetime tournament earnings and one career final table. Joshua Barney sits at 3,555,000. Ian Matakis, a one-bracelet winner with $2.13 million in lifetime earnings and 16 final tables, was at 2,900,000 when the field was at 21. Michael Hahn holds 2,785,000.

This is a field where Mizrachi's résumé dwarfs the table. Eight bracelets, one Circuit ring, $26.03 million in lifetime earnings, 38 career final tables. The gap between him and the rest of this field isn't a gap — it's a canyon.

What a Ninth Bracelet Would Mean

Mizrachi currently sits tied for 10th on the all-time WSOP bracelet leaderboard at eight. A ninth would move him into a tie for seventh, alongside players whose names populate every "greatest of all time" list in the game.

But the bracelet count is almost secondary to the specific achievement. Winning this particular event — the $10K PLO Championship — for a third time would give Mizrachi a claim that transcends leaderboard arithmetic. Plenty of players have won multiple bracelets in the same format. Winning the same five-figure championship event three times is categorically different. The sample of players who have even reached two wins in a specific $10K championship is vanishingly small. Three is uncharted.

The Road from Here

Sixteen players remain. The final table is eight-handed, so half the field still needs to bust before the TV lights come on.

The notable bust on Day 3: 2013 Main Event champion Ryan Riess, who holds $13.28 million in lifetime earnings and 33 final tables, was eliminated in 22nd place. His exit underscores the caliber of field that Mizrachi is navigating.

Among the remaining players with reported stacks, the credentials thin out fast after Matakis. Diogo Alexandre Xavier Veiga of Portugal ($61,115 in lifetime earnings, two final tables) is the short stack at 605,000 — less than seven percent of Mizrachi's count. Francisco Perez Moreno of Spain sits on $141,979 in career earnings.

Mizrachi doesn't need to dodge monsters to win this. He needs to keep doing what he's done for three days: accumulate chips at a pace the field can't match.

Day 4 will determine whether the Grinder's name gets etched into a record book that, right now, has a blank page waiting.